Tim Harford's 3 Rules of Passwords

1) They must be impossible to remember

2) They must never be written down

3) They must change frequently

The "Undercover Economist" — who still returns my emails, a less and less frequent occurence these days... but I digress — stated the principles above recently when musing about the dilemma of passwords in today's golden age of hacking and phishing.

He offered a remedy on the April 23, 2008 Financial Times website which you can read all about here; me, it's way beyond anything I'd be capable of.

But the reason I'm even raising the subject of passwords here is that ever since I've used a computer, I've done precisely the opposite of Harford's three rules.

My passwords are very easy to remember, they're always written down in many places and they never — ever — change.

No wonder my life's what it is.

Though I must confess I kind of like it this way.