I’ve only really noticed the use of “grok” in IT circles in recent years (maybe I’ve been under a rock but hey) – it always made me laugh and thought it was a geek neologism that stuck.
But I’ve just started reading the 1961 classic Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein and noticed his frequent use of the term. And he obviously loved it…
“There was so much to grok, so little to grok from.”
Turns out he made it up and it’s been picked up all over the place – and not only by us geeks.