"Reputedly, whoever could untie it would be destined to rule all of Asia. In 333 BC Alexander was challenged to untie the knot. Instead of untangling it laboriously as expected, he dramatically cut through it with his sword, thus exercising another form of mental genius. It is thus used as a metaphor for a seemingly intractable problem which is solved by exercising brute force...
Alexander the Great later went on to conquer Asia as far as the Indus and the Oxus, thus fulfilling the prophecy."[0]
Alexander was only doing what would come to mind to any horseman: whenever one has 500kg of panicked livestock putting tension on (what was once a quick-release) knot, cutting is the appropriate solution.
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[ 0.24 ms ] story [ 29.9 ms ] threadhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39582571
>gordian knot
substantive nerd-snipe.
"Reputedly, whoever could untie it would be destined to rule all of Asia. In 333 BC Alexander was challenged to untie the knot. Instead of untangling it laboriously as expected, he dramatically cut through it with his sword, thus exercising another form of mental genius. It is thus used as a metaphor for a seemingly intractable problem which is solved by exercising brute force...
Alexander the Great later went on to conquer Asia as far as the Indus and the Oxus, thus fulfilling the prophecy."[0]
[0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_Knot