Password Reset: Changing something you don't remember into something you won't remember.
There was a time when forgetting something meant admitting you had a bad memory. Now it means completing a six-step security procedure to prove you're the person who forgot it.
First, you enter your password. Incorrect. You try the other password. Also incorrect. You try the password you've been using for the last fifteen years. Apparently, you've never used that one in your life.
So you click Forgot Password, which is less a question than a statement of fact.
The website sends a verification code. You retrieve it, return to the original screen, and discover that the code has expired. After requesting another, you're finally allowed to create a new password.
It must contain eight characters, a capital letter, a number, a symbol, and apparently something you've never thought of before.
Success! Your password has been changed.
You immediately forget what you changed it to.
Modern security has turned remembering things into a full-time occupation. In Passwords Won the Arms Race, security keeps getting stronger while human memory stays exactly where it was. And Password Manager Logic Explained introduces the remarkable concept of remembering one password so you can forget all the others.
At some point, technology will recognize our faces, fingerprints, and voices without requiring a password.
Until then, we'll keep resetting something we can't remember into something we won't remember.
Chad Geepeety™ — Confident Advice. Questionable Results.
