Password Management for Anyone!

There is a simple system of managing passwords that anyone can use, which lets you write down your password (in effect) but which is completely secure.

Here's a very simplistic example to start with.
You decide to make your password two letters long, of consecutive letters.
You remember a particular p/w by extracting the first letter, 'c' which we'll call the key.
You construct the p/w by following a pattern of adding the next letter after the key, c --> c,d --> cd.
Another p/w from this pattern could be 'mn' with its key being 'm'.

A more useful example could have two sub-patterns of paired letters/numbers e.g. 'cd' and '34'.
You remember each sub-pattern from its key, which is still the first letter, and combine them to form the master key, 'c3'.
The results of the sub-patterns combine to make one master pattern in as complicated a way as you like, cd34, c34d or whatever.
c3 --> cd & 34 --> cd34, c3d4, etc.

To the previous example you could add a three letter field derived from the name of a month.
The key could be 'x7Jly' giving a p/w of 'xy78Jly', 'x78yJly', 'x7Jlyy8', etc
'x7Jly'--> x7 & 78 & Jly--> 'xy78Jly', 'x78yJly', 'x7Jlyy8', etc

Instead of specifying the month directly you could do it indirectly by specifying someone who has that month for a birthday,
say Bill. So the key would now be x7Bill, still giving passwords of 'xy78Jly', 'x7y8Jly', etc.

More consistently, you would generate a second month from the first, say 'Aug' from 'Jly' and put in in the pattern.
So 'x7Bill' --> xy & 78 & JlyAug --> 'x7Jlyy8Aug', 'xJly7yAug8', etc.
Or 'm7Charlie' --> mn & 78 & JanFeb --> 'mn78JanFeb', 'm7Jann8Feb', etc

The more complex your pattern, the harder it is for a hacker to break but also the harder for you to keep straight. The above patterns are sufficiently complex for most uses in that they use letters, numbers and mixed case. The important thing is that you pick one pattern and make sure you don't forget it.

Normally if you need to help your memory you would write down the key and memorize the pattern. In fact you could probably write down the master pattern, using a key and password that you don't use, so that when someone reads it there's a good chance they won't be able to construct the correct password. e.g. you could write down: x7Bill --> xJly7yAug8 but this won't the average person cypher p3Charlie into pMar3qApr4, especially if they don't know Charlie's birthmonth.