I read that one of the best ways to preserve a seed phrase is to write it on a piece of paper and keep it in a safe place... Somewhere safe could be in your home out of the reach of family members and friends, it could also be a safe deposit box. But not everyone are financially buoyant to afford the services of a deposit box.
I believe we must have seen or heard about fire outbreaks, where buildings are completely erased by fire. Imagine if the owner or occupant of such a building has some Bitcoin assets, and has his/her phone, tablet, laptop and the seed phrase piece of paper in the building and everything was lost to fire. Now, this brings me to the question... Can seed phrase be memorized? It's advisable to memorize seed phrase?
the good thing about keys are. you can have many copies
its not a either/or.. its an and situation
if you want to try and remember the word go ahead. but also have a physical backup just in case
some people even go to a DIY store get a thin sheet of metal and etch/drill holes in it to mark a seed key in
some etch with a drill tip.. this per word
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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and then simply drill a hole for the first 4 letters
(repeat 12 times)
knowing metal will probably last longer than paper/microchips
there are many ways of doing backup. you are not stuck with one choice/location