We have a number of Linux systems where we set strict memory overcommit handling and sometimes this can cause problems . Some years ago I speculated that we might want to fix the fundamental problem another way , and then earlier this year I investigated that a bit and determined it would likely work for us . This summer we rebuilt all of the relevant machines using Ubuntu 26.04 and you probably will not be surprised to know that we're still using strict memory overcommit ( cf ).

That's about a four year gap between having a clever idea and actually looking into the clever idea (and then still not acting on it). Part of that is inertia (strict memory overcommit mostly doesn't cause us problems, so we usually don't think about it), but a lot of that was losing track of my clever idea. This is undoubtedly not the first potentially useful idea I've had and lost track of, and it's probably not going to be the last.

Writing down a clever idea is necessary but not sufficient to keep track of it and eventually get around to further considering it and maybe investigating it (after all, I wrote my idea down here in an entry). What I didn't do is follow through on anything, and even when I did follow through it was only to take the idea one step further. It feels like I should do better than that, that good ideas shouldn't linger around for almost half a decade until they resurface almost coincidentally.

On the other hand, maybe this is an illusion. Even if a clever idea works (which isn't guaranteed), it may not solve a problem you (I) currently have. One reason I left this idea sit for so long is undoubtedly that we don't really have problems with our current strict memory overcommit settings, so there was nothing to push me to go look into potentially better solutions. There are always things I could be looking into but I have both limited time and limited motivation.

(This is one aspect of 'a change needs to be better, not just another way of getting the status quo'. And it has to be enough better to justify the investment of time and attention.)

I don't have an answer, but I found it interesting to actually observe myself having a clever idea and then not so much dropping it as losing track of it and never getting around to doing anything more. It feels like something I should pay at least some attention to.

(I could make a resolution to write down my clever ideas somewhere. But in practice, places I write down ideas rapidly become idea graveyards, because I never look at them again. I've learned the painful way that I have a limited 'top of mind' capacity and once things drop out of that, they disappear. This happens to my inbox, it happens to clever ideas files, it happens to a lot of stuff. Although writing ideas down means that I do have some chance of finding them again, instead of no chance, and seeing my old notes and thoughts.)