Ask HN: Can you document things that didn't work?

While reading "Why are CEOs failing software engineers?" [1], I remembered the phrase "It took me two days to write two lines of code that work because I had to consider a dozen other solutions that didn't work". [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23872625 This makes me wonder: is there a way to record all the options that didn't work, so that no one will have to consider them ever again? The problem here seems to be that it's not enough to merely write down the things you tried. The next person should be able to actually find them. Any ideas?