heinlein's cup of tea

 

File:Retro-futurism.jpg
Eser Gündüz | Retro-futurism

 

since we are all voyagers through space and time exploring the contents within - let's employ one of the great science fiction writers of the previous century to illustrate an important concept. 

 

i'm talking about the concept of "to grok something" which was created and explained by robert a. heinlein in the 1961 sci-fi novel "stranger in a strange land". the book is about the man michael smith who was raised on mars and how he understands and integrates the culture on earth and terrestrial concepts. 


without going too much into the details of the book i'd like to explore what "to grok" means and supply several definitions by various sources:


a) to understand intuitively or by empathy, to establish rapport with. (oxford dict.)


b) to understand (something) intuitively, to know (something) without having to think intellectually (wiktionary)


c) when you grok something, you just get it — in other words, you totally grasp its meaning.(vocabulary.com)

 

all these definitions fall short in some respects - as all definitions about subtle concepts do. however, there are some crucial points made.

"to grok something" means to not overanalyze every aspect about which you want to understand. it rather means to use intuition and feelings to get at the truth of the matter. you just get it.

i talked in "the pool of tears" about how hard it would be to describe color to a blind person. in heinleins book it's essentially a very similar thing. it's about a martian-raised individual that is trying to understand human concepts - a reality he really has no foundation to even begin understanding. some things and concepts are just hard to explain and convey - maybe ultimately essentially impossible. we can only point people in the direction, not hand them the result they need to just get. (in some cases you maybe even can hand them the result, but people wouldn't know what to do with it or how to integrate it properly into their own reality)

of course the word "just" may imply that this is an easy voyage. voyages can be easy, they can be hard. some voyagers may never reach the destination. some say the whole purpose is the voyage. 

all i can say is that it might help to not loose the destination out of ones focus completely - to cherish the intention of getting there - but on the other hand to also enjoy the ways and paths and experiences during the journey and not just to obsess on reaching a goal one does not even fully understand.

the ego is a problem in all of this. it superimposes your own concepts and ideas on not only the goal and destination itself but also on how you think the journey should be undertaken. in this hobby it is very important to keep being open minded - not to an extent that your brains fall out - but to entertain different perspectives and paths. experiment, seek guidance, walk down some roads and discard others - but ultimately identify which roads bring you further in the right direction.




i feel like i am repeating myself

i promise i'll be less vague in my upcoming posts

 

 

 

 



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Image: Eser Gündüz, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons




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