when i was younger, maybe 7, i used to multiply by two a lot. i'd do it in my head and i would do it often. i dont know why i started or why i stopped or why i didnt go to higher numbers. i dont remember being trained to multiply at the time so i dont even know how i used to do it.
i'd multiply 1x2 = 2
2x2 = 4
4x2 = ~~16~~ 8
and so on
the farthest I remember reaching was 1024, though I may have reached 2048 once. i dont know why i didnt go higher than that.
another thing i used to do was tap my fingers in a pattern, LRRL, so left tap, right tap, right tap, left tap. then i'd expand that pattern, LRRL, RLLR, RLLR, LRRL, so it would be a bigger pattern of the same pattern. like multiplying i'd just do this to see how big i could make the pattern. i'd do this by tapping my index and thumb finger. to an observer it would probably appear as if i were 'stimming'.
did anyone else do things like this?
Absolutely, and I still do it at 52 years of age. Powers of two, three, five. I also convert letters to numbers, add them, and subtract 26 to figure out which letter is the total of the word, phrase, or license plate.
If I play boggle a lot, I will start to dream word patterns.
When I was a teenager, my Dad would point out a license plate and have me total them and convert to hexadecimal.