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Three years ago I stopped using password managers and now I'm faster than ever
I know this sounds crazy (especially in a tech hacks community), but last week I timed myself logging into my bank, email, and work portal with and without a password manager. Without it I averaged 22 seconds total. With it I was at 47 seconds because of all the copy-pasting and auto-fill glitches. I switched back to just memorizing 3 strong passwords (one for money, one for work, one for everything else) and using two-factor on everything. Has anyone else ditched password managers and not regretted it?
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anthony4261mo agoMost Upvoted
Three passwords for everything means you're reusing the same password across multiple sites for that "everything else" category. That's a big risk if one of those sites gets breached. Also timing yourself on a single login session doesn't account for the real value of a password manager which is generating unique random passwords for every single account you have. Twenty two seconds might feel fast now but what happens when one of those three passwords gets cracked and you have to change everything? Two factor helps but it's not a fix for weak password reuse. Most people don't realize how many accounts they actually have until they try to remember a unique password for each one without help.
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sage_park61mo ago
Think about how this fits into the bigger problem where we keep trying to fix things that aren't really broken with complicated systems that add more steps. Like how grocery stores swapped to self checkout but it takes longer than just having a cashier do it. Or how smart home stuff often makes simple tasks like turning on a light take way more effort because you have to find your phone or yell at a speaker. Password managers are the same - they solve a problem by creating a whole new set of friction points that slow you down in real life. Meanwhile you just made things simple and secure with 2FA and memorizing three solid passwords. Sometimes the old way really is the better way when you look at how much time people waste on overengineered solutions.
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