How passwords stole my sanity

Many of us have been surprised when the removal of the wall of a house or office reveals a Jackson Pollock drip-painting of copper wires, fiber-optic cables, water pipes, and other cords and strands, obviously installed with no plan for how the different threads would be woven together. Every pipe, cord, and tube was jury-rigged by separate tradesmen, adding to the complexity each time, to the point that the first step in any repair is the detective work to determine what leads where. I call it the Tangle, and increasingly, it is the condition of modern life. My own recent entrapment in the medical and health-insurance side of the Tangle illustrates its pernicious reach. In the dark ages of copper-wire telephony and paper records, I would call my doctor’s office and make an appointment wit