this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
48 points (88.7% liked)
Technology
77090 readers
3577 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
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