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Ask HN: Does everyone know the word “grok”?
When writing technical blog posts or other content targeted at developers, do you assume that people know the word "grok"? Or, is it better to avoid the word and just go with "understand"?
- pxcse 3y agoNever heard it until now - except for ngrok which I now understand isn't simply a made up word ;-)
- emschwartz 3y agoThat's a good data point, thanks!
- mtmail 3y agoSame. It's one of those words you skip when reading and never lookup what they really mean.
- ghoshbishakh 3y agosame
- bombcar 3y agoI would use understand as "grok" is a word relegated to fans of Heinlein and sundry, and I suspect it would be less understood by those outside the USA. If you want to reference the same "deeper understanding" idea, use "in the zone" or "flow" or similar.
- emschwartz 3y agoInteresting, thanks!
- ljf 3y agoNon technical (Product and Strategy person), but it is a word I know of. I only recently remembered it as I haven't heard it in a few years, after an article enlightened me that it was originally a 'hippy' term (for the same meaning).
- lesserknowndan 3y agoDidn’t some company use it in an ad a couple of decades ago? Do you grok?
- brodouevencode 3y agogrok (as I grok it) means more of a deep understanding - an alternative is also the slang to "feel" something: i.e. "I feel ya".
- emschwartz 3y agoYup, that's my understanding as well
- zahma 3y agoI didn’t even know this word existed until I started reading along in HN threads.
- pestatije 3y agosimilar to dig, aint it?
- coldtea 3y agoGrok was once a term adopted from science fiction, familiar only to sci-fi fans. Almost a century later it's just another word, primarily used in tech circles, but not that different than any other word. It's even in the dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grok https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grok
- luluthefirst 3y agoI did not know the meaning but I've seen it in the past somewhere I think. Thank you. Now we can grok each other.
- schwartzworld 3y agoI feel like it's pretty easy to guess what it means in context, so I do use it. I've been a science fiction fan a long time, so I was tickled when I heard it used in tech circles for a long time.
- KomoD 3y agoNever heard of it before
- mikewarot 3y agoRelated is the difference between theoretical/surface level understanding of things, aka "book learning", and the grok/instinctive/deep level of understanding that comes from actual interactive with something. Example: I had purchased some large rare-earth magnets, and my friend told me to just drag one over this big copper nugget outside the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary arts, and my understanding of eddy currents instantly went from theoretical to practical in a heartbeat, as I felt the drag of the magnet over the very conductive object.
- noaoh 3y agoI remember one time an old manager tried to say it, and everyone thought he was saying 'groping'.