To untangle a rope

Last weekend I was launching a kite with my daughter and her friend. It was great fun, but when I was veering the kite down its string entangled. I spent about 30 minutes (maybe even more – time flies fast :)) to untangle the string. I followed the string loops, analyzed the types of knots, imagined what will happen to string if I pass it through one loop or another. I went through a lot of different combinations inside my mind and devised more and more new techniques. When I finished finally, I felt satisfaction. I felt no tiredness or irritation, furthermore I had the feeling like I untangle the strings all my life. Then I thought about it I realized that it’s not far from the truth. The process of untangling string (as well as rope, chain and so on) is very similar with the process of software defects researching (the term was first introduced by Dmitry Vostokov). So if you in doubt to be software researcher or not – try to untangle a rope first :)