Password manager vs memory debate after my notebook got stolen

I kept my passwords in a little notebook for 3 years because I didn't trust cloud storage. Last week someone swiped my bag at a coffee shop in Portland and that notebook was in it. Took me 6 hours to change every account and I'm still finding old logins I forgot about. So which is actually worse - relying on a physical thing that can get lost, or trusting a digital vault that could get hacked? Anyone else ever have their physical backup plan blow up on them?

2 comments

2 Comments

cooper.viola3d ago

Holy crap, 6 hours? That is brutal. I would have had a full breakdown after like the first 30 minutes of trying to remember everything. I've never had a notebook stolen but I lost my phone once with passwords saved in the notes app and that was bad enough, I can't imagine a whole book full of them.

rubyreed3d ago

Oh man, @cooper.viola that phone thing sounds rough too. But yeah, the notebook loss is a whole different level of stress. It's funny how we think we're being smart by avoiding the cloud, but we're really just trading one risk for another. I've noticed this pattern in everyday life where people try to solve a problem by going to the extreme opposite, like someone who stops eating sugar completely and then binges on cake later. The real trick is finding that middle ground where you're not putting all your trust in one system. Hope you've recovered from the nightmare, six hours of password resets sounds like my personal version of hell.