Bow ties are only cool if they’re the battery-powered variety that spin around.
There are even “zipper” ties, which basically have a zipper that tightens a loop around the wearer’s neck. The knot is never messed with.
Wow. The next time a woman here says that she doesn’t dress for men, and a whole bunch of men dismiss the possibility, I’m going to link to this thread and remind y’all that no woman in the history of ever has noticed or given a shit about your knot. 
I’m using at least four different types of tie knots, depending on the thickness of the tie and the spread of the collar.
The full Windsor is great for thin-ish ties in wide collars. I prefer the self-releasing variation.
Half Windsor and Pratt/Shelby goes with normal thickness ties in medium narrow collars. With a little bit of care, the self-releasing half Windsor can look very symmetrical.
The four-in-hand is nice with thick wool ties. With most silk ties, though, it’s just too narrow and asymmetrical, and IMO you’ll look like a schoolboy. It can work for a narrow black tie, combined with a white shirt and a fedora, though 
Bow ties are for black tie occasions or for that eccentric professor look. On my side of the pond, a bolo tie is only suitable if you’re also wearing cowboy boots and listen to C&W music daily. And never for a formal occasion.
I’d like to wear a tie more often than I do, but if I start wearing one on a regular basis at work, they’re probably going to think I’m even more weird than I am. Whenever I wear something more formal than jeans and a T-shirt on a normal workday, I’m overdressed…
Had a mess trying to make sense of that link till I found a piece of string to practice.
Turns out I use a co-half windsor, i.e. the self-releasing windsor. It is a symmetrical tie, it is easy to undo, and uses a lot less tie than a Full Windsor.
The four-in-hand is the one that looks lopsided.
Should add that I rarely wear a tie. My job I often wear jeans and a button shirt. But I did learn back when I was supposed to wear a tie every day.
I stopped wearing ties 15 years ago, and have no regrets so far.
I am surprised so many people are calling the half Windsor an asymmetric knot. If your half Windsor is asymmetric, you are doing it wrong.
Personally I’m a big fan of the Eldritch knot. Never have been able to get a clear photo of it for some reason.
Ah, but what tie knot is it that you don’t use? If it’s a half windsor that you’re not tying, you should be ashamed.
Really up to the wearer – a matter of tightening the knot to where you want it. So you can actually get either result. Also, when the tie fabric allows, I always recommend a dimple for added panache.
The Windsor knot is by far the most elegant and superior method of tying a tie, unless the wearer falls into that small minority of tie wearers whose neck is smaller in circumference than a fire hydrant, or whose head may be smaller than a modestly sized watermelon. In either or both of these unlikely events, a more subdued knot may be appropriate.
Then again, it can be offset by combining it with other fashion mistakes. I mean, do you really notice the Windsor in that pic?
Oh, certainly. The Windsor is blowing his Hairsor all over the Fucksor.
win-sor
Just thought I ought to add that Jon Stewart doesn’t like bowties.
This.
And this: There is the Windsor and the double Windsor. The double Windsor is way too big and looks stupid. Reserved for the clueless and those who wear polyester.
“…There is no such thing as a double Windsor…”
Except for the fact - which already has been mentioned - that there is no such thing as a “double” Windsor, it all depends on the collar spread and the thickness & width of the tie. You’ll look pretty ridiculous with a delicate tie in thin silk tied in a four-in-hand inside a wide collar. It’ll look like a shoelace with an overhand knot.
And every polyester tie I’ve handled (I currently have none, though), has been too thick and stiff for a full Windsor.
Why is it that I can often watch hours of expensively produced professional comedy entertainment on film or television without getting more than a few mild chuckles out of it, but be reduced to tears and snorting at a few typed quips that a bunch of smartass Dopers flung onto the internet in their spare time for free?
Either y’all are just on average way funnier than real comedians or else I am just pathologically predisposed to laughter on seeing the Arial typeface.