I think people are taking the pocket example too literally. When I used to have to remember and manage way, way to many passwords I had a small notebook with the different parts to my passwords. Never was a whole password written out but I could recreate any password I needed from the little book. Was it a prefect solution? No. But it worked well for me for more then a decade and I worked with people who did similar. I did once put my little book in the wash when very tired, but interestingly little notebooks hold up well.