[lxgr]

Classic HN – downvotes without explanation.

I might well be wrong about the etymology here, but I understand "grokking" to be a term for a phenomenon in training neural networks.

What I'm not sure about is which was there first – AI companies called some version of "grok" or that term.

[flutas]

The term grok came from Robert Heinlein’s 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land and got picked up by the CS field heavily around the late 60s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok

[lxgr]

I do know that meaning of "grok", but I always assumed the more specific one in the context of neural networks was what informed these two naming choices, although I really don't know the exact timeline.

Didn't know about Heinlein coining it though, that's cool!

[fieryscribe]

Unrelated, but you just reminded me of an old blog: Groklaw. I can't believe it's been over 10 years since it was active

[verdverm]

From the HN commenting guidelines

> Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

[lxgr]

I'm well aware of the "complaints about downvotes beget downvotes" meme and was expecting it here, but sometimes I am genuinely curious about the nature of the disagreement. Here I really just wanted to learn what people think the actual etymology is. I get and appreciate "I don't find this contribution helpful", but I really dislike a "I think you're factually wrong but can't be bothered to correct you" downvote.

As an aside, I wonder when "please don't make a quote from the HN commenting guidelines the only contribution of your comment" will join that list...

[verdverm]

> As an aside, I wonder when "please don't make a quote from the HN commenting guidelines the only contribution of your comment" will join that list...

HN is largely community driven moderation, helping dang do his job, so I suspect this meta don't wouldn't make it

I didn't comment on the substance because others already had by then, not sure why they didn't prefer your OG comment...