I started watching ‘Ancient Empires‘ and in the very first episode found myself shaking my head when it came to the story of the Gordian Knot. I’m not a historian, I don’t play one on the Internet, but something about the observations about the mindset related to Alexander cutting the Gordian Knot in the city of Gordium.

The background they gave on Alexander was of a young man who grew up in the shadow of his father, was schooled in warfare, and who after his father was killed was proclaimed King and decided to use his authority to go ‘civilize’ the Persians. These were less politically correct times, now we ‘give people freedom’.

Anyway, he shows up in Gordium and looks at this knot. The legend was that whoever undid the knot would become the ruler of Asia, and I imagine Alexander understood well the nature of establishing his personal identity to everyone.

Personally, I wouldn’t have gone with ‘Great’, I would have gone with ‘Awesome’ because of the alliteration – but that makes the point. I’m looking at it as I am now, not as it was then.

So as they tell it in the documentary, he ‘looked at the problem in a new way’ and ‘solved the problem in an unexpected way’.

First of all, I’m pretty sure that there were people who just didn’t try. It’s pretty hard to be the ruler of Asia while you’re tending your goats. Next, this culture of not trying was likely enforced by some that wouldn’t allow people to try because the world was like that then. It’s like that now too, but we won’t get into that.

Lastly, there’s this King who has an invading army going through Persia and he has chosen a path to employ his will on areas he’s conquering – the sword.

So is it really that surprising that Alexander took a look at the knot, said, “screw this” and pulled his sword out and took at least one whack at it? He wasn’t solving an impossible problem with some ingenious solution – he was solving a problem in a manner he was comfortable with, that he clearly reached for in his problem-solving toolbox.

When someone just cuts through a knot with a sword at the head of an invading army, no one is going to say, “Umm – hey, wait, you were supposed to untie it” either. Maybe someone did, and maybe their body is in an unmarked grave somewhere. We don’t really know.

We tend to romanticize history. We like a good story. Because of that, we sometimes miss a good point. In this case, use what you have on hand and that you’re comfortable with to solve a problem and do it as quickly as possible so that you can move on to the next problem.

Creative? Nope. He just used what was handy, and had the audacity to do it in a way that maybe others thought of but could not do because of social standing, or because they decided they had enough trouble dealing with their herd and family and didn’t feel the need to impose their will on the world.

Alexander the OK, though, doesn’t really have that ring to it, does it? No. To warrant that title, people rationalize all sorts of things about him that may not be true.

If I’m staring at a knot to be undone and happen to have a sword in my belt, I think I’d take a whack at it myself. Wouldn’t you? I bet you’ve done it in your lifetime without even thinking of the Gordian Knot.