Grok
Encyclopedia
To grok is to intimately and completely share the same reality or line of thinking with another physical or conceptual entity. Author Robert A. Heinlein
coined the term in his best-selling 1961 book Stranger in a Strange Land
. In Heinlein's view, grokking is the intermingling of intelligence that necessarily affects both the observer and the observed. From the novel:
The Oxford English Dictionary
defines grok as "to understand intuitively or by empathy; to establish rapport
with" and "to empathise or communicate sympathetically (with); also, to experience enjoyment". Other forms of the word include groks (present third person
singular), grokked (past participle
) and grokking (present participle).
The OED definition is incorrect in that it is incomplete: the given, narrow definition of this term is beset by the challenges of similar, more encompassing terms such as gestalt and quiddity
, that reference a much broader frame than we normally recognize.
To grok something is both to comprehend (relate intellectually) and to apprehend (relate emotionally) its quiddity, its essence, its being.
In an ideological context, a grokked concept becomes part of the person who contributes to its evolution by improving the doctrine, perpetuating the myth, espousing the belief, adding detail to the social plan, refining the idea or proving the theory.
as a Martian
word that could not be defined in Earthling terms, but can be associated with various literal meanings such as "water", "to drink", "life", or "to live", and had a much more profound figurative meaning that is hard for terrestrial culture to understand because of its assumption of a singular reality.
According to the book, drinking is a central focus on Mars, where water is scarce. Martians use the merging of their bodies with water as a simple example or symbol of how two entities can combine to create a new reality greater than the sum of its parts. The water becomes part of the drinker, and the drinker part of the water. Both grok each other. Things that once had separate realities become entangled in the same experiences, goals, history, and purpose. Within the book, the statement of divine
immanence
verbalized between the main characters, "Thou Art God
", is logically derived from the concept inherent in the term grok.
Heinlein describes Martian words as "guttural" and "jarring". Martian speech is described as sounding "like a bullfrog fighting a cat". Accordingly, grok is generally pronounced as a guttural gr terminated by a sharp k with very little or no vowel sound (a narrow IPA transcription might be [ɡɹ̩kʰ]).
, in his book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
, describes a character's thoughts during an acid trip: "He looks down, two bare legs, a torso rising up at him and like he is just noticing them for the first time... he has never seen any of this flesh before, this stranger. He groks over that...."
Contemporary spiritual teacher Ram Dass
, in Be Here Now, quotes a large passage from Stranger about the word.
Numerous examples of its use in the late 1960s appear, including in Playboy
and The New Yorker
.
The word is also used in passing in The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson
and Robert Shea
, and frequently by Wilson in his other work.
In his 1969 counterculture Volkswagen repair manual, How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-By-Step Procedures for the Complete Idiot, John Muir instructs prospective used VW buyers to "grok the car" before buying.
According to Ed Sanders' book The Family, convicted murderer Charles Manson
was a fan of Heinlein and Stranger and adopted many of the terms associated with both including grok and thou art God. This was later proven untrue in interviews with Manson himself as he had never heard of the book. Some of his followers had heard of it and read it but Manson never used the book to justify the murders or any of his other activities.
and bumper sticker
slogan for Trekkie
s, seen as early as 1967, was I grok Spock (often showing the Star Trek
character using the Vulcan salute
). Other science fiction
authors, such as David Brin
or Greg Cox, have borrowed the term over the years as an homage
.
In the book Daniel X: Watch the Skies, the main character, Daniel, uses the term several times over the course of the book.
: "There isn't any software! Only different internal states of hardware. It's all hardware! It's a shame programmers don't grok that better."
The Jargon File
, which describes itself as a "Hacker's Dictionary" and has thrice been published under that name, puts grok in a programming context:
The entry existed in the very earliest forms of the Jargon File, dating from the early 1980s. A typical tech usage from the Linux Bible, 2005 characterizes the Unix
software development
philosophy as "one that can make your life a lot simpler once you grok the idea".
The book Perl Best Practices
defines grok as understanding a portion of computer code in a profound way. It goes on to suggest that to re-grok code is to reload the intricacies of that portion of code into one's memory after some time has passed and all the details of it are no longer remembered. In that sense, to grok means to load everything into memory for immediate use. It is analogous to the way a processor cache
s memory for short term use, but the only implication by this reference was that it was something that a human (or maybe a Martian) would do.
The Man Page for cURL
, an open source tool and programming library, describes the function of cURL as "cURL groks URLs".
Bob Dole
as "not a person who could grok values in the now-dominant Boomer
tongue".
In an episode of Night Court
, Judge Harry Stone asks what grok is. Bailiff Bull Shannon responds that it is "[a] sudden flash of insight derived from a profound empathetic experience."
In the song "Friends", by The Police
, the lyrics state that the singer will "grok your essence".
Featured on the social network Evolver, created by author Daniel Pinchbeck
, is a "grok" button similar to the "like" button featured on facebook
.
In Planet Sheen
, the antagonist Dorkus often says "Oh, grok!" when his schemes fail.
The online learning website Grockit is a reference to grok.
The legal news website Groklaw
is a reference to grok.
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
coined the term in his best-selling 1961 book Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians. The novel explores his interaction with—and...
. In Heinlein's view, grokking is the intermingling of intelligence that necessarily affects both the observer and the observed. From the novel:
The Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
defines grok as "to understand intuitively or by empathy; to establish rapport
Rapport
Rapport is a term used to describe, in common terms, the relationship of two or more people who are in sync or on the same wavelength because they feel similar and/or relate well to each other....
with" and "to empathise or communicate sympathetically (with); also, to experience enjoyment". Other forms of the word include groks (present third person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
singular), grokked (past participle
Participle
In linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
) and grokking (present participle).
The OED definition is incorrect in that it is incomplete: the given, narrow definition of this term is beset by the challenges of similar, more encompassing terms such as gestalt and quiddity
Quiddity
In scholastic philosophy, quiddity was another term for the essence of an object, literally its "whatness," or "what it is." The term derives from the Latin word "quidditas," which was used by the medieval scholastics as a literal translation of the equivalent term in Aristotle's Greek.It...
, that reference a much broader frame than we normally recognize.
To grok something is both to comprehend (relate intellectually) and to apprehend (relate emotionally) its quiddity, its essence, its being.
In an ideological context, a grokked concept becomes part of the person who contributes to its evolution by improving the doctrine, perpetuating the myth, espousing the belief, adding detail to the social plan, refining the idea or proving the theory.
Stranger in a Strange Land
Robert A. Heinlein originally coined the term grok in his 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange LandStranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians. The novel explores his interaction with—and...
as a Martian
Martian
As an adjective, the term martian is used to describe anything pertaining to the planet Mars.However, a Martian is more usually a hypothetical or fictional native inhabitant of the planet Mars. Historically, life on Mars has often been hypothesized, although there is currently no solid evidence of...
word that could not be defined in Earthling terms, but can be associated with various literal meanings such as "water", "to drink", "life", or "to live", and had a much more profound figurative meaning that is hard for terrestrial culture to understand because of its assumption of a singular reality.
According to the book, drinking is a central focus on Mars, where water is scarce. Martians use the merging of their bodies with water as a simple example or symbol of how two entities can combine to create a new reality greater than the sum of its parts. The water becomes part of the drinker, and the drinker part of the water. Both grok each other. Things that once had separate realities become entangled in the same experiences, goals, history, and purpose. Within the book, the statement of divine
Divinity
Divinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...
immanence
Immanence
Immanence refers to philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence, in which the divine is seen to be manifested in or encompassing of the material world. It is often contrasted with theories of transcendence, in which the divine is seen to be outside the material world...
verbalized between the main characters, "Thou Art God
Thou Art God
Thou Art God is a statement of divine immanence that is popular within Neopaganism and other religions. The phrase is also stated numerous times in the pages of Robert A...
", is logically derived from the concept inherent in the term grok.
Heinlein describes Martian words as "guttural" and "jarring". Martian speech is described as sounding "like a bullfrog fighting a cat". Accordingly, grok is generally pronounced as a guttural gr terminated by a sharp k with very little or no vowel sound (a narrow IPA transcription might be [ɡɹ̩kʰ]).
In counterculture
Tom WolfeTom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
, in his book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a work of literary journalism by Tom Wolfe, published in 1968. Using techniques from the genre of hysterical realism and pioneering new journalism, the "nonfiction novel" tells the story of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters...
, describes a character's thoughts during an acid trip: "He looks down, two bare legs, a torso rising up at him and like he is just noticing them for the first time... he has never seen any of this flesh before, this stranger. He groks over that...."
Contemporary spiritual teacher Ram Dass
Ram Dass
Ram Dass is an American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the seminal 1971 book Be Here Now. He is known for his personal and professional associations with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s, for his travels to India and his relationship with the Hindu guru Neem...
, in Be Here Now, quotes a large passage from Stranger about the word.
Numerous examples of its use in the late 1960s appear, including in Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
and The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
.
The word is also used in passing in The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson , known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic...
and Robert Shea
Robert Shea
Robert Joseph Shea was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy Illuminatus!. It became a cult success and was later turned into a marathon-length stage show put on at the British National Theatre and elsewhere. In...
, and frequently by Wilson in his other work.
In his 1969 counterculture Volkswagen repair manual, How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-By-Step Procedures for the Complete Idiot, John Muir instructs prospective used VW buyers to "grok the car" before buying.
According to Ed Sanders' book The Family, convicted murderer Charles Manson
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
was a fan of Heinlein and Stranger and adopted many of the terms associated with both including grok and thou art God. This was later proven untrue in interviews with Manson himself as he had never heard of the book. Some of his followers had heard of it and read it but Manson never used the book to justify the murders or any of his other activities.
In science fiction
A popular t-shirtT-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
and bumper sticker
Bumper sticker
A bumper sticker is an adhesive label or sticker with a message, intended to be attached to the bumper of an automobile and to be read by the occupants of other vehicles - although they are often stuck onto other objects...
slogan for Trekkie
Trekkie
A Trekkie or Trekker is a fan of the Star Trek franchise, or of specific television series or films within that franchise.-History:In 1967, science fiction editor Arthur W...
s, seen as early as 1967, was I grok Spock (often showing the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
character using the Vulcan salute
Vulcan salute
The Vulcan salute is a hand gesture consisting of a raised hand, palm forward with the fingers parted between the middle and ring finger, and the thumb extended. Often, the famous line, "Live long and prosper", is said after it. The salute was devised and popularised by Leonard Nimoy, who...
). Other science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
authors, such as David Brin
David Brin
Glen David Brin, Ph.D. is an American scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. He has received the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards.-Biography:...
or Greg Cox, have borrowed the term over the years as an homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
.
In the book Daniel X: Watch the Skies, the main character, Daniel, uses the term several times over the course of the book.
In computer programmer culture
Uses of the word in the decades after the 1960s are more concentrated in computer culture, such as a 1984 appearance in InfoWorldInfoWorld
InfoWorld is an information technology online media and events business operating under the umbrella of InfoWorld Media Group, a division of IDG...
: "There isn't any software! Only different internal states of hardware. It's all hardware! It's a shame programmers don't grok that better."
The Jargon File
Jargon File
The Jargon File is a glossary of computer programmer slang. The original Jargon File was a collection of terms from technical cultures such as the MIT AI Lab, the Stanford AI Lab and others of the old ARPANET AI/LISP/PDP-10 communities, including Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Carnegie Mellon...
, which describes itself as a "Hacker's Dictionary" and has thrice been published under that name, puts grok in a programming context:
The entry existed in the very earliest forms of the Jargon File, dating from the early 1980s. A typical tech usage from the Linux Bible, 2005 characterizes the Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
software development
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
philosophy as "one that can make your life a lot simpler once you grok the idea".
The book Perl Best Practices
Perl Best Practices
Perl Best Practices is a programming book focusing on standard practices for Perl coding style, encouraging the development of maintainable source code. It was written by Damian Conway and published by O'Reilly.-External links:...
defines grok as understanding a portion of computer code in a profound way. It goes on to suggest that to re-grok code is to reload the intricacies of that portion of code into one's memory after some time has passed and all the details of it are no longer remembered. In that sense, to grok means to load everything into memory for immediate use. It is analogous to the way a processor cache
Cache
In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...
s memory for short term use, but the only implication by this reference was that it was something that a human (or maybe a Martian) would do.
The Man Page for cURL
CURL
cURL is a computer software project providing a library and command-line tool for transferring data using various protocols. The cURL project produces two products, libcurl and cURL...
, an open source tool and programming library, describes the function of cURL as "cURL groks URLs".
Mainstream usage
In their book The Fourth Turning, William Strauss and Neil Howe write of 1996 Presidential candidateUnited States presidential election, 1996
The United States presidential election of 1996 was a contest between the Democratic national ticket of President Bill Clinton of Arkansas and Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee and the Republican national ticket of former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas for President and former Housing Secretary Jack...
Bob Dole
Bob Dole
Robert Joseph "Bob" Dole is an American attorney and politician. Dole represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996, was Gerald Ford's Vice Presidential running mate in the 1976 presidential election, and was Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987 and in 1995 and 1996...
as "not a person who could grok values in the now-dominant Boomer
Baby boomer
A baby boomer is a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom and who grew up during the period between 1946 and 1964. The term "baby boomer" is sometimes used in a cultural context. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve broad consensus of a precise definition, even...
tongue".
In an episode of Night Court
Night Court
Night Court is an American television situation comedy that aired on NBC from January 4, 1984, to May 20, 1992. The setting was the night shift of a Manhattan court, presided over by the young, unorthodox Judge Harold T. "Harry" Stone...
, Judge Harry Stone asks what grok is. Bailiff Bull Shannon responds that it is "[a] sudden flash of insight derived from a profound empathetic experience."
In the song "Friends", by The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
, the lyrics state that the singer will "grok your essence".
Featured on the social network Evolver, created by author Daniel Pinchbeck
Daniel Pinchbeck
Daniel Pinchbeck is an author living in New York’s East Village, where he is editorial director of Reality Sandwich, a blog website centered around New Age philosophy and activism. He is the author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism and 2012:...
, is a "grok" button similar to the "like" button featured on facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
.
In Planet Sheen
Planet Sheen
Planet Sheen is an American CGI animated television series. It is the 2010 spin-off of the 2002 series The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius as well as the 2001 Oscar-nominated film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. The show was created by John A. Davis, Keith Alcorn and Steve Oedekerk and based on...
, the antagonist Dorkus often says "Oh, grok!" when his schemes fail.
The online learning website Grockit is a reference to grok.
The legal news website Groklaw
Groklaw
Groklaw is an award-winning website covering legal news of interest to the free and open source software community. Started as a law blog on May 16, 2003 by paralegal Pamela Jones at Radio UserLand, it has covered issues such as the SCO-Linux lawsuits, the EU anti-trust case against Microsoft, and...
is a reference to grok.
See also
- Gestalt psychologyGestalt psychologyGestalt psychology or gestaltism is a theory of mind and brain of the Berlin School; the operational principle of gestalt psychology is that the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies...
- Knowledge by acquaintanceKnowledge by acquaintanceThe contrasting expressions "knowledge by acquaintance" and "knowledge by description" were promoted by Bertrand Russell, who was extremely critical of the equivocal nature of the word know, and believed that the equivocation arose from a failure to distinguish between the two fundamentally...
- Knowledge by descriptionKnowledge by descriptionThe contrasting expressions "knowledge by description" and "knowledge by acquaintance" were promoted by Bertrand Russell, who was extremely critical of the equivocal nature of the word know, and believed that the equivocation arose from a failure to distinguish between the two fundamentally...
Anschauung, a related "sense-perception" concept in KantKANTKANT is a computer algebra system for mathematicians interested in algebraic number theory, performing sophisticated computations in algebraic number fields, in global function fields, and in local fields. KASH is the associated command line interface...
ian philosophyPhilosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational... - KythingKythingKything is from an old Scottish word, "kythe," meaning "to make visible." Madeleine L'Engle used it to describe a fictional type of communication, in a sense like telepathy, found in several of the books in her Time Quartet...
, a related transpersonal perception of essential beingness described in Madeleine L'Engle's novel A Wind in the Door - Weltanschauung
- MemeMemeA meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
- Mark SissonMark SissonMark Sisson is an American fitness author and blogger, and a former distance runner, triathlete and Ironman competitor. Sisson finished 4th in the February 1982 Ironman World Championship. He has written several books, including The Primal Blueprint, which is based on the paleolithic diet. The...
, author of "The Primal Blueprint", in which he uses a fictional character representation of a Paleolithic man named "Grok" to help illustrate the virtues and health benefits of following a Paleolithic lifestyle in the modern world
External links
- Grok definition in the Jargon FileJargon FileThe Jargon File is a glossary of computer programmer slang. The original Jargon File was a collection of terms from technical cultures such as the MIT AI Lab, the Stanford AI Lab and others of the old ARPANET AI/LISP/PDP-10 communities, including Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Carnegie Mellon...
- SF citations for grok gathered for the Oxford English DictionaryOxford English DictionaryThe Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
by Jesse SheidlowerJesse SheidlowerJesse Sheidlower is an author and editor specializing in English linguistics and lexicography. From 1999 until 2005 he was Principal North American Editor at the Oxford English Dictionary; since 2005 he has been an editor-at-large, focusing on North American usage. He is a frequently cited expert... - Grok in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary
- WikiQuote on Stranger in a Strange Land includes many uses of grok
- Grok and the Vanguard of Science, essay from Groks Science Radio Show and Podcast