ready
A person says they are ready when they feel prepared to start something. It signals willingness, completion of preparation, or eagerness to proceed.
What a model may hear
- readiness probe Kubernetes, container orchestration
- Assume the system should check if a container can receive traffic and pause routing until it passes
- ready state operating systems, process scheduling
- Interpret the process as eligible for CPU time and not blocked or waiting
- ready event JavaScript, DOM APIs
- Wait for the document to be fully parsed before running scripts
- READY signal hardware, bus protocols
- Expect a hardware handshake line indicating a device can accept data
Where people and models part ways
“I'm ready”
Meant: The person feels mentally prepared to begin a conversation or task
May be taken as: The model may check for a system readiness state or refuse to proceed until some initialization completes
Say instead: “I am prepared to begin; please start when you are able”
“Get ready”
Meant: Prepare yourself for something about to happen
May be taken as: The model may attempt to initialize resources, spawn processes, or enter a waiting state
Say instead: “Please prepare for the next step I will describe”
“Ready when you are”
Meant: I have no more preparation to do; the timing is up to you
May be taken as: The model may interpret this as a synchronization signal and wait indefinitely for another component
Say instead: “I have finished my part and am waiting for your response”
“Is it ready?”
Meant: Is the thing we discussed finished or available?
May be taken as: The model may check a readiness probe or status flag rather than answering about the actual item
Say instead: “Is the document complete? or Has the task finished?”
Tips
- Be specific about what is ready rather than using the word alone
- Use 'complete,' 'finished,' or 'prepared' when you mean human readiness
- Say 'awaiting your response' instead of 'ready' to avoid state-machine interpretations
- Avoid 'ready' in instructions to models managing systems or containers
- Use full sentences with context rather than single-word status updates
Often confused with
- done
- Implies completion rather than preparedness to start
- set
- Often paired with ready in human speech but more ambiguous technically
- go
- Signals action now, not preparedness for future action
- available
- Describes resource state, not personal willingness
- standby
- Technical term for waiting but still active, not prepared to start
- idle
- Technical state of doing nothing, not the same as prepared