Now I’m like, dude

[GoodTaste]

The expression "Now I’m like, dude, it took 14 years to figure this out" appears to have lost some element, especially after "like"- like what? "I" don't say and I feel unsatisfied.

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“People told us we should have waited to publish until we knew what they did. Now I’m like, dude, it took 14 years to figure this out,” says Gill Bejerano, a genomicist at Stanford University in California, who described ultraconserved elements in 2004.

Source:https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ldquo-dark-matter-rdquo-dna-influences-brain-development/

 

[emsr2d2]

"Like", when used this way, is used by a lot of native speakers when explaining something they said or thought.

Jane: I saw Fred last night. Haven't seen him for years.
Sarah: Oh wow, wasn't he your first boyfriend?
Jane: Yup!
Sarah: So what happened?
Jane: Well, I was, like, 'Hey, how are you?' And he was like 'Oh my god, it's you! I'm OK. You?' And I was like 'Fine, thanks.'
Sarah: Well done. I'd have been like 'Aaargh, it's Fred. Where can I hide?'
Jane: Ha ha.

Jane's long line reports what was actually said and Sarah's next line explains how she would have felt and what she would have been thinking if she had been in the same situation.

So in your original "Now I'm like" means "This is what I'm currently thinking/feeling". He is saying/wants to say to the people who told him in 2004 that he/they should wait before publishing their discovery, "In 2004, you told us not to publish until we knew what unconserved elements do. Well, it took us 14 years to figure out what they do!"