Speaking of unwanted knot behaviors, your headphones will knot in a pocket if you reel them up around your hand as usual, introducing a twisting moment to the wire. They will knot much less likely, if you fold them into a /\/\/\ shape instead without rotational moves. Not applicable to wireless earbuds.
One of the best way to prevent cable knots is to use the over-under technique. It helps prevent knots, and lets you unravel a cable extremely fast. I learned it in the audio industry, but it works great for cables of any size. This is a good and straightforward tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yPcJD7RVuY
A roadie coil produces consistent loops, which are large-radius bends, aka gentle bends. This is what you want for electrical cable, especially high-quality expensive cables you want to last a long time. Tight-radius bends, aka kinks, can cause premature failure.
Folding is fine if the cord is extremely flexible, or for rope.
Folding done right produces no twists at all about the axis of the line, which is ideal. That’s why it is the preferred method for packaging rock climbing ropes. The roadie coil produces alternating twists that mostly cancel each other out once it is fully uncoiled.
