This post inspired me to re-read my thesis (well browse through it). Although it has been 16 years since I last looked at it, I didn’t have any problem understanding it and I didn’t even really cringe reading it. I guess it depends on your field how bad this effect is.
I was about to write much the same thing... Last year, I found a hard copy of my dissertation (which I defended in 2004). I skimmed through it and had absolutely no problem whatsoever understanding what I had written 11 years prior. And I've been out of academia since 2008.
