[Kehoe, B., "Zen and the Art of the Internet", February 1992.]

[Jargon File]

To figure out something by meditation or by a sudden flash of enlightenment. Originally applied to bugs, but occasionally applied to problems of life in general. "How'd you figure out the buffer allocation problem?" "Oh, I zenned it."

Contrast grok, which connotes a time-extended version of zenning a system. Compare hack mode. See also guru.