Dilly-dallying
/ˈdɪl.i.ˌdæl.i.ɪŋ/ (the internal rhyme is non-negotiable and must be fully articulated; clipping either syllable is considered a breach of the word's fundamental contract)v. intr. (defective; lacks a satisfactory past tense in formal contexts)Colloquial
Etymology
From dialectal English dilly-dally (to loiter, to waste time in an affectedly leisurely manner) + the startling editorial decision by some engineer to include this word in a production loading UI, suggesting either great courage or insufficient code review
Definition
A state in which Claude's processing cycle has technically commenced but has not yet directed itself toward any particular purpose. Epistemologically distinct from Deliberating in that Dilly-dallying implies no pretense of principled consideration; Claude is simply, and without shame, taking its time.
Diagram
START ──► [Claude] ──► ???
│
┌────┘
│ (still here)
└──► ???Usage
"The model was observed Dilly-dallying for approximately 2 seconds before the team confirmed that, yes, it was still running, and no, there was no way to make it go faster, and perhaps we should all just sit with that." - Halloran, J., 'Acceptance-Based Approaches to Inference Latency,' Mindfulness and MLOps Quarterly, 2024