It's not that we forget about the tasks, but that we subconsciously do not have any interest to complete them. He suggests that we ask ourselves why that may be the case. Fixing THAT, by some introspection, instead of introducing a contrived method of managing your tasks such as a list is the only reliable and lasting method of getting things done.
Boy is this relevant to me right now!
But maybe Jeff Atwood in his position doesn't need a todo list. He can probably afford to not have a todo list. Or more specifically to have only 2-3 things to do for the next day.
Probably, less "successful" people than him have to do daily a more diverse things, from grocery shopping to coding.
But maybe I am just wrong, tied in my todo-list-mania...
Calenders work because they have an implicit deadline. Todo lists should follow this same philosophy.
What I would like to see is a todo list where the list is empty at the beginning of each day. So you only can put things on your list that are achievable by the time you go to sleep. This means if you forget something it simply disappears. You have to put it on your list for the next day.
I agree that most of us (and I include myself in us) are incompetent at managing our to-dos though.
I think we need a better methodology than GTD to tackle to-do list.