Tomfoolering

Etymology

from Eng. tomfoolery (buffoonish behavior) + the anomalous -ering suffix, applied by Anthropic UX engineers who required a spinner verb for outputs that were technically correct but inexplicably silly

Definition

The computationally expensive process of generating a response that is accurate, well-reasoned, and formatted correctly, yet somehow conveys the impression that it was authored by a golden retriever with a degree in computer science. The mechanism by which Tomfoolering arises from otherwise-standard inference remains poorly understood.

Diagram

Usage

"Tomfoolering was in progress for approximately 6 seconds; the resulting function worked perfectly but was named 'do_the_thing_please()' and contained a comment reading 'here we go!'" - Anthropic Eval Report AE-2024-0041

See Also