How I accidentally got into someone else’s gmail account

I agree. I put random garbage in the security question answers, a password so hard to crack that even I never remember it. ;) In other words, I opt out whenever I get the chance.

The "security questions" really are terribly insecure. I've seen questions as bad as "What was the color of your first car?". I wouldn't be surprised if 90%+ of answers fall into three or four colors. What I recommend to people is using a password manager like 1password or lastpass. Copy each question into the "notes" section, use the password manager to generate a random answer and then save it in the notes as well.

I've experimented with using transformations on the question text (e.g. using the third letter of the first word, the first of the second, etc, and then sprinkling capitals and l33ts by some repeatable and memorable process).

It was a pain in the neck, so I went back to gibberish answers, and accept that every year or so I will have to call a couple of banks and ask for a password reset. They always ask for my security answers. I say "I don't use them because they are less secure than my computer and my password." They usually agree.

I've also had success in the past with modifying the expiration date of the bank's "I remember you and your device" cookies. I usually forget to change them before they expire and get overwritten though.