Muscle memory
Some years ago I started a new job, and on day 1 realised that I now had to use the UNIX skills (or even skillz) that I'd confidently asserted in the interview. What I hadn't mentioned was that it was somewhere up to a decade since I'd last used UNIX in anger. So I was staring at the cursor, knowing what I wanted to do but not having the slightest recollection of the arcane sequence of letters and twisted abbreviations that would achieve it.

I had nothing. Panic was setting in. So I did what all good Jedi do, and Used The Force: I closed my eyes, and just let my fingers type whatever felt right. And I mean that literally, I really did close my eyes and try not to think about what I was typing.

And blow me down, it worked. It seems my finger muscles remembered the sequence, even though my conscious mind didn't.

The human memory is a remarkable thing.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Tue 5 Jul 2011, 13:16, 7 replies)

Yup.
That's the only way I can remember my PIN.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 5 Jul 2011, 13:34, closed)

if you tell me your pin i will remember it for you

( fluffybunnykiller Is feasting on the clitoris of life, Tue 5 Jul 2011, 14:15, closed)

97M569-037(237)qdhhJ72KL9

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 5 Jul 2011, 15:27, closed)

Mate's memory better than mine
Standing at the cash machine and after ten years with the same pin I get a sudden mental block and can't type it in. Complaining to my mate who was with me:

"Fuck sake, I've forgotten my pin. How did that happen? I've had it for years".

Mate leans past, types in my pin, gets cash.
( AWPS, Tue 5 Jul 2011, 14:20, closed)

That has happened to me
the forgetting the pin not the mate knowing it. How does it happen? At the time (years ago) it was the only pin I had to remember and it completely went - nothing I could do could bring it back. I made little paper keyboards and tried the eyes closed re-trace and everything but not a thing rung a bell. Now I reset all my pins to the phonepad letters of my first name and so this will never happen again.
(karnuvap, Wed 6 Jul 2011, 15:06, closed)

you didn't have access to Google then

( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Tue 5 Jul 2011, 14:18, closed)

They could do with you at bletchley park
I was there on saturday and they were busy trying to start up an old cray. An old version of unix. It seemed like fun.
(Not him., Tue 5 Jul 2011, 21:02, closed)