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I use the tiered password approach myself. The majority of my accounts are with sites that have none of my personal info and that wouldn't otherwise be a threat if they were to be compromised. I have a handful of 'throwaway' passwords for these sites.

For sites somewhere in between- no actual threat, but I'd prefer if they weren't compromised (like this one) - I use different variations of stronger, but not difficult to remember passwords. Each one is unique, but they're all similar and not particularly strong.

Sites and accounts that actually matter all have unique, strong passwords.

An interesting technique someone suggested to me once was to use very long, complicated passwords but to maintain a physical list (say, in my wallet) that has part of the passwords on it- maybe rearranged slightly according to some simple algorithm. That way you get good, brute-force-resistant passwords but do not have to remember all of them. At the same time, the list itself is pretty safe because it does not contain the entire password and is rearranged somewhat. Often just seeing a small part of the password is enough to remind you of the whole thing.

Probably still too risky for serious security, but not a bad system.