>>
and <<
are shift operators. They are common across languages such as C, PHP, and [[go]].
Go in particular makes the operation slightly safer, but the simplified version is that shift all bits of a number left/right, by the amount given.
<<
is 'times 2', and>>
is 'divided by 2', x amount of times.
For example, 1 << 4
is 1
times 2, 4
times. Which is 16
.