I hadn’t intended this blog to be philosophical, but my first post got me thinking. What if you think you grok something you believe to be fact, but in reality it wasn’t true? Is this illusion of grok real, or can someone’s belief overshadow reality?

Let me illustrate my thinking with an example or two. Take a look at this image:

Admit it, the first thing that popped into your brain was that the floor had either partially collapsed or that the construction crew was insane when they built that. A second later your brain shook off your instinct of what you were seeing and rationalized that this was merely an optical illusion.

For my next example, I will ask a simple question:

Was Napoléon Bonaparte short?

Ok, how many of you thought he was considered short for his time? I did. I intuitively knew he was short. I grokked it.

In fact he was 5’6”, slightly above average for his time. I was wrong.

Here is the thing. I didn’t change my intuitive understanding about this until I was shown the proof. If someone had come up to me on the street and told me this fact, I’m not sure I would internalize this change in understanding.

So, how did I internalize Napoléon’s shortness? Over time via word of mouth what I heard from others formed my understanding of this un-truth. What I did not do, was consider what I was told in an objective fashion and make my own informed decision.

In the world of software engineering, there is a syndrome that I like to call ugly baby syndrome. When a developer has poured their heart and soul into a piece of software only to be told at some point that it has design issues, or that it doesn’t meet the business needs. The developer has a hard time accepting this criticism as fact, and in fact has lost their objectivity in regards to the software itself. No one is immune from this, not even I.

In this day of polarizing opinions, half-truths, and alternative facts I believe that many people allow their desire and beliefs to cloud their objectivity. This in turn creates the illusion of grok within their knowledge base potentially clouding their judgement.

Beware the illusion of grok!