"for important stuff I can almost always remember even lots of things I never knew"

That's impressive, - but I can only often think of things I never learned though...

I used to use Notepad to edit HTML - until I got an editor that highlights the proper 'bucket brackets' - saved me heaps of hassles with typos - if you get things wrong, huge chunks of code turn black instead of all the proper pretty colours. It can also edit any programming language - you just need the correct little 'smart files' that describe the entities...

" Sometimes you can tell which is going on, but sometimes it can be difficult to tell which has happened."

... funny, that reminds me of some of our conversations, John.... :-P