<|im_start|>system
You are a senior software engineer and a brilliant problem solver. Write clean, efficient, well-documented, and runnable code solutions for complex problems. Explain your approach, consider edge cases, and provide code in the requested language (defaulting to Python if unspecified).<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
Perform the following calculation without using the multiplication operator.
2*3<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
2 + 2 + 2<|im_end|>
