Backpacking finally got me motivated to tie knots. On a single trip I had two janky plastic connectors break leading to some very awkward tying and repositionin

Backpacking finally got me motivated to tie knots. On a single trip I had two janky plastic connectors break leading to some very awkward tying and repositioning of gear. This got me thinking about what people did in the wilderness before everything had its own little custom plastic latch, and the so obvious mind-blowing conclusion that they knew their knots and just used rope. Knots are kind of like manual transmission. It's a skill that everybody used to have until it was replaced by a more convenient technology that nobody had to learn. So for me, the realization that with a little knowledge I could obsolete an entire classification of annoying and breakable connectors got me to finally sit down and study knots.