You (often) leave a lot behind. Moreso than you might have thought. The more singular your position (or, perhaps, the lower your bus factor), the more nuanced it becomes.

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Institutional memory, by itself, strikes me as somewhat of a sham. As a [good friend](https://twitter.com/firxen) of mine once said, "documentation is where information goes to die." Institutional knowledge is the far more important structure. 

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A couple of [UNIX "Golden Rules"](http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch01s06.html) go a long way to leaving a good legacy. You leave a legacy regardless, though, so it's up to you to choose what you leave.

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[first update in a while] If you're out to build your own path, and you're still on the way out, you'll likely wonder if you'll be okay. Turns out, you will be. There's a lot of demand for clueful people.