[lucozade]

> Apparently my vi command muscle memory hasn't faded.

Back in the day I did most of my dev work on Solaris. I then spent 4 years as CTO as a startup that was pretty much only Windows.

When I subsequently went back to working at a unix shop I was initially struggling with vi as I tried to read some of the C++ code. I couldn't remember commands, was having to refer to the man pages every few mins. It was torture.

A couple of days in, I was writing up some notes in vi when someone walked past my desk and started chatting. When we finished talking I looked down at the monitor and I'd written more than I had when I was concentrating, nicely formatted, the works. Turns out "my hands" had remembered a load of what I thought I had forgotten.

For the next few days I had to keep finding ways to distract myself so that I could work efficiently. Eventually it all came to the foreground but it was the most bizarre experience while it was happening.

[farresito]

This always happens to me with passwords. I have trouble remembering some passwords. Yet, when I'm in front of the page and I actually need to get in, either I lose some focus and let my unconsciousness do the work or I won't get it right.

[versteegen]

Heh, a few weeks ago I realised that I'd become unsure about my email password (almost never have to log in). So I logged out and tried to log back in, trying every possible combination, keeping track of them on paper. I had to give up, turns out that I was way out. The next day I wanted to check my emails and typed in the password immediately.

[cam-]

There is the (internet) story of an engineer that could only log in when he was sitting down. Standing up he could not login.

The problem was he had cleaned his keyboard a couple of days earlier and put some keys back wrong. When he was sitting down he logged in by touch typing. Standing up he looked at his keyboard when he typed.

[knodi123]

I was trying to share my banking passwords with my wife ("in case of emergency" kind of stuff), and I was forced to admit that I had no idea what my bank password was, even though I log into it several times a week. I had to open a word processor and type my username and password for her all at once. The act of typing my username allowed the password to pop into my memory.

[danvideo]

I tend to think it's a good thing that I don't actually know my bank passwords - a password manager is much simpler. Having strong passwords for all different banks is a piece of cake when you don't have to remember them.

[ptaipale]

This is nice. Some criminals torture you: "Give us your password so we can take your money". "I cannot give it to you! I can only enter it in a stress-free environment when not thinking about it."

(Applies also to those government warrants forcing you to divulge information.)

[Kristine1975]

That doesn't sound like an advantage. I'd rather give away my money than being tortured.

[nkrisc]

Yes! That same has happened to me. I'm sitting there trying to remember my password, but I can't. But I just try to start typing it and I get it right. I hadn't remembered my password, I'd only remembered the motions.

[JustSomeNobody]

The only way I can remember passwords (completely) is to have hands on a keyboard. So weird.

[Splines]

When I used to play piano as a kid, this happened to me all the time.

Sit me in front of the piano and I'll mindlessly bang out the song I've been practicing. Make me think about it in the middle and I'll forget what comes next.

[philsnow]

When I was a kid, I could not start reciting the alphabet anywhere but from 'A'. In the alphabet song, the latter bits go really slowly compared to the first bits, so for the longest time I thought "P" was the middle of the alphabet, because it comes about halfway through the song. It came as some surprise to me that "M" is the 13th letter.