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A comment on When swiping supplants scissors: The hidden cost of touchscreens.

Re:When swiping supplants scissors: The hidden cost of touch... by rahimnathwani on Thursday July 24, 2025 @12:44PM (#44672897)
The article mentions tying shoelaces.

If you have a kid who hasn't yet learned how to tie their shoelaces, you might find this video helpful: https://youtu.be/JaBmehtalAY

It shows a method called the 'Ian Knot', which:

- results in the same type of knot as the common method, and

- is faster because it requires fewer hand movements, and

- is as easy to learn as the common method (for kids learning from scratch)

When adults encounter it, they usually think it seems hard, but that's just because they're used to the method they've used thousands of times. It's not really harder to learn!

BTW I'm pretty sure I learned about the Ian Knot here on HN. It's been posted a bunch of times. The first few times I saw it, I just bookmarked it for later. But when it was time to teach my son, I figured I should use the best method.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:When swiping supplants scissors: The hidden cost of touch... by jakubmazanec on Thursday July 24, 2025 @12:55PM (#44673049)
Ian Knot is fast, but IMO (well, I preferred it when I was in kindergarten) easiest to learn for a child is Two loop knot.

[1] https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/twoloopknot.htm

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:When swiping supplants scissors: The hidden cost of touch... by rahimnathwani on Thursday July 24, 2025 @01:26PM (#44673466)
Yes, for 35+ years I used that knot. For most of that time I didn't know why my loops were always crooked. Then I read about the granny knot, and started reversing my first knot.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:When swiping supplants scissors: The hidden cost of touch... by derblitzmann on Thursday July 24, 2025 @12:54PM (#44673032)
Oh yeah, I think learned about the 'Ian knot' on hn as well, though I use the secure variant: https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:When swiping supplants scissors: The hidden cost of touch... by rahimnathwani on Thursday July 24, 2025 @01:32PM (#44673550)
I didn't know about this knot, but I'm pretty sure I tried it when I was kid, messing around with different ways to tie laces.

I tried it just now, and it's indeed very secure.

I almost always wear sneakers, and don't have any problem with laces getting untied, so I'll stick with the Ian Knot.

I will suggest this secure knot to my son, though.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:When swiping supplants scissors: The hidden cost of touch... by ofalkaed on Thursday July 24, 2025 @04:26PM (#44675643)
The standard/common way has the advantage of it being the easiest to maintain and control tension on the starter knot as you tie it, which is probably why it became the standard.
[ Parent | on HN ]