Have you read "Stranger in a Strange Land"? The word originates there, and has a more nuanced meaning than just "understand". The book is strange and interesting. I didn't pick it up until I'd read (and enjoyed) other of Heinlein's stuff, and after I'd read about the word in the Jargon File. I had always thought of it as a synonym of "understand", when in reality it is more like a superset. As a nerd and an appreciator of language, I am very glad that I read the book and understand the word better, as it really is an interesting idea.
It's as big of a difference as speaking German with an accent is from being fluent (along with thinking and dreaming in the language). Understanding "grok" is like understanding the German concept of "friend"-vs-"acquaintance" and thinking about your own friends in the same way, rather than our American way of "everyone's my friend". (In German culture, most people -- coworkers, teammates, etc -- are not __friends__. They're people you know, and maybe know well, but "friend" is much more similar to an American's concept of a "best friend", or group thereof. (I have about three.)
... none of that explains what "grok" means as well as reading the book. Wikipedia [1] doesn't quite even cover it, but has a good collection of newer uses of it that help.
In the case of this article, "grok" is entirely appropriate. It might even be the best word. As a user, I can figure out commands in vim, I can use a cheat sheet, but until I start thinking about using the tool in a way which fully embraces the tool in the way it was meant to be used (e.g., verbs + marks), I'll always be a poor and dissatisfied user.
It's as big of a difference as speaking German with an accent is from being fluent (along with thinking and dreaming in the language). Understanding "grok" is like understanding the German concept of "friend"-vs-"acquaintance" and thinking about your own friends in the same way, rather than our American way of "everyone's my friend". (In German culture, most people -- coworkers, teammates, etc -- are not __friends__. They're people you know, and maybe know well, but "friend" is much more similar to an American's concept of a "best friend", or group thereof. (I have about three.)
... none of that explains what "grok" means as well as reading the book. Wikipedia [1] doesn't quite even cover it, but has a good collection of newer uses of it that help.
In the case of this article, "grok" is entirely appropriate. It might even be the best word. As a user, I can figure out commands in vim, I can use a cheat sheet, but until I start thinking about using the tool in a way which fully embraces the tool in the way it was meant to be used (e.g., verbs + marks), I'll always be a poor and dissatisfied user.
1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok