this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
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WTF does this mean???
"Grok" was briefly a real(ish) word back in the 60's, after Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land first came out. It faded into obscurity over the last few decades until Elon ressurected it, and now writers are unironically utilizing it again for some reason.
People using the word "grok" has always been a red flag. The people who read stranger in a strange land and identified with it so much they started using the word are fucking weirdos. The book is about a child adopted by Martians who inherited their reality-bending mind powers, comes back to earth as an adult and creates a nudist sex cult. Basically Jared Leto. I'm not joking, that's the book.
It was always elder developers who didn't wear shoes and had trouble with personal space.
https://hackersdictionary.com/html/entry/grok.html
I read it in my early twenties, almost twenty years ago. I am not a developer but am in the same area. I always wear some form of shoes when I leave my house unless I enter someone else's house. I don't think I have trouble with personal space but I don't really see anyone other than my wife and kid.
I remember liking some of the themes of the book but, reflecting on it now, yes, Heinlein can be problematic.
There is no problem with having read the book, there's no problem with liking it. I did both, the first time i read it I thought it was cool. I'm more taking about people who made the nude sex cult book part of their personality enough to use the word grok unironically.
I read it as a teenager and wasn't particularly impressed. As an adult I reread it after hearing it was a "classic" and I couldn't even make it halfway through. Absolutely agree that liking that book is a red flag
You can bacially replace grok with "clock", or, even better, "notice."
I see he's still completely tone-deaf, too.