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If you include the tip, you can do base 16.

Let’s go hexadecimal all the way.

No. Base 16 is only divisible by 1, 2, 4, and 8, while Base12 is divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. Of course, Base 10 is only divisible by 1, 2, and 5.

Switching from Base 10 to Base 12 would be difficult. Instead we should go back in time and ensure we evolve with 6 fingers on each hand and foot.

This is an excellent compromise

This is why men are superior to women, we can always count to one higher. (or two including the tip, as someone suggested with the fingers) :-p ducks

But all the techniques to multiply numbers with your fingers are more confusing in base 12.

https://www.wikihow.com/Multiply-With-Your-Hands

Those techniques can be useful. If you add toes, multiplying numbers up to 20 (like 16x18) is easy.

Or use a hand as a 5-bit integer, then you can count to 31 :)

It's hard to actually count using more than 4 bits/hand though. The quickest methods that require the least dexterity are those that count the knuckles (which are actually used in some counting traditions, unlike binary finger-counting).