It never ceases to amaze me how reliably someone always appears to “well, actually” this issue whenever Ian comes up. Despite the fact that he has merely published all this info freely on the web for like 20+ years and never attempted to monopolize knot information, nor force anyone else to acknowledge him in any way. Like, if you want to, you could call it the “Ian Sucks” knot. Why care if he calls it ‘Ian Knot’? If you liked your hotdogs a certain way and you call that an “Arijun Dog,” should people be mad at you if technically it’s a style first prepared 50 years prior in Nashville by a guy named John?
replyI disagree- when I googled this knot I came immediately to https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknothistory.htm where this “Ian” fellow goes to great lengths to establish himself as the inventor. Screenshot of a davinciesque yellowed inventor’s notebook and so forth.
replyMy problem with it isn't what he calls it, it's that he claims to have invented it. It would be fine if he said, "yes, other people have been using this knot for decades, but I like to call it Ian's knot."
replyWould it bother you if I started re-wrote the Wikipedia article on the hot dog in an attempt to convince everyone I invented it? And if people started believing that?
I read that exact preface on his site before learning and adopting it (the secure knot, specifically, but the preface is on both).
replyIt’s great that he has that caveat, but it’s buried under the “Tech Info” tab. Meanwhile, the header says “yes -- I'm the inventor,” and there is no mention of the knots actual history in the “History” page, only how he “invented” it.
replyThey shouldn't be mad at you at much as dismiss you. You should admit that sticking to it and trying to make other people acknowledge it is ridiculous, a joke at best.
replyIf you've "invented" some relatively simple combination of existing pieces, the only sensible and humble thing to do is acknowledge that you're probably not the first one.
What do you think of the medical doctor Dr Tai that "invented" calculus in 1994 and called it Tai's Model?
replyHe surely invented "Ian's Knot" (the term for it). Even if there already existed a knot tied the same way, if people didn't know it by a name, surely there's some benefit to having a name for it?
replyIan's Knot is a new procedure for achieving the same configuration as a standard knot or double loop knot. The procedure involves inserting the loops into each other simultaneously. Basically, it is like a reverse unravelling.
replyWhen you pull the two string ends of a standard knot at the same time, the loop shrink and pull out of each other at the same time. Just figure out how to do that backwards and you probably have Ian's Knot or something very close.
I could see there being use for putting a name for it if there wasn't one before. You can do that without pretending you invented it, though.
replyIf there's not a name for it though, how do you find out? Also, you can invent something without being the first.
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