What does KludgeGuru Mean?
KludgeGuru what the heck is that, you might ask. First we must break KludgeGuru up into the basic parts…Kludge & Guru.
What does Kludge mean?
Kludge: Improvised solution to a problem, jury-rigged & inelegant but effective.
An alternate spelling to Kludge is Kluge. Some prefer Kluge some prefer Kludge. World Wide Words has a great blurb on the origin, spelling and pronunciation of Kludge. The origin of Kludge seems to be a bit inelegant in itself so I guess you can say the word itself is a Kludge.
Examples of Kludges:
This example is an electronic circuit that was prototyped using surface mount components on a breadboard. It looks like a big mess of wires and it is definetly inelegant and suprisingly it did work.
Later it was made into an actual circuit board.
What does Guru mean?
Guru: Expert. Leader. Wizard skill with a history of being a knowledge resource.
Wikipedia definition of guru is a person who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others.
KludgeGuru
So KludgeGuru means someone that is an expert at inelegant solutions to problems. Someone that is good at jury-rigging something to work until a better solution is found.
The Oxford Dictionary credits my father with creating the word “kludge”.
He passed away two years ago, but used this word along with others I’d never heard anyone else use as far back as I can remember (the early sixties).
In his article on “How to Design a Kludge”, my father jokingly credited origin of the word to some ancient German word of similar spelling. In actuality, he coined the word during his stint as a bomber navigator during WWII. Many parts of the whole process of dropping bombs on Europe were the result of systems “kludged” together.
After the war, my dad went to work for Boeing and was involved in the production of some early age computer technology development, were “kludging” happened to a large degree.
My father, Jackson W. Granholm, had a degree in Physics from the University of Washington, held multiple contracting licenses, was involved in alcohol biofuels in the early 70’s, and wrote thousands of articles during his lifetime.
Other words he coined included
“Slowe” (Pronounce sl–ou as in “ouch” meaning to beat severely. As in “If you don’t quiet down you’re going to get slowed!”
and
“flubdubbity” meaning sense in immense confusion
Glen Granholm