WikipediaPick: Grok
April 18th, 2008 Posted in WikipediaPickGrok
As first used in the Heinlein novel Stranger in a Strange Land:
“Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us (because of our Earthly assumptions) as color means to a blind man.
I heard this term used in a podcast I listened to a while back and had to look it up. I had never heard it used before but I like the word! I’ve read a lot of Heinlein books but either I haven’t read Stranger in a Strange Land or I glossed over this word without giving it a second thought.
Anyway, it’s a cool word. Do you grok it?
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I’ve heard and used ‘grok’ fairly often, in a techy environment. I’m glad to find its source, though; it seems that colloquial use (in my experience) has diverged from the original meaning. When we use it, ‘grok’ is a synonym for ‘infer.’ For example:
“I couldn’t pin down the problem, but, looking at the logs, I could grok that it’s coming from apache somehow.”
I used that exact sentence the other day, in fact, while talking to a number of developers (ages ranging from 22-52). I think I picked it up on Slashdot.