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Every now and then, I say "wuckles" next to a person who I am work trialing, or who for some other reason cares about not looking dumb in front of me.
They casually-but-frantically google "wuckles" in the background to try to figure out what I meant. The only google result for "wuckles" is an urban dictionary response which is not what I meant by it, and it's pretty clear from context it's not what I meant by it. They are confused.
After seeing this summary I anticipated that the rest of the post would be about how you're deliberately saying a nonsense word in order to test how conformist job applicants are / whether they're capable of admitting confusion even in situations where there are incentives against that.
Maybe you need another word for that now.
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2It feels important to clarify I want to clarify that most of the times I've heard Ray say "wuckles", it hasn't sounded like it had an exclamation mark. It's not a shout. It's not an big or emotional expression. It's closer to the energy level of someone saying "huh" or "lol" or "wowzers" than the energy level of someone saying "fuck" or bursting into laughter or shouting at someone on the road.
1I think about 50% of the time it has an exclamation point but is a sort of subdued exclamation point, like someone whispering "shit!" under their breath. (When I imagine saying "shit" under my breath with-and-without exclamation point, the the "!" one is somewhat higher pitched and the air comes slightly-whistling out of my mouth)
They casually-but-frantically google "wuckles" in the background to try to figure out what I meant.
I now need the "I'm in this picture and I am uncertain how to feel about it" react
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I think good puzzle games are trying to target primarily this emotion and then a satisfying resolution of it.
Puzzle games tend not to produce this reaction as much because I know they're going for it, so it's more appearing "within my expected frame" than "surprise from left field". (When games do it in a surprise genre-subversion way, that's more wuckly)
For it to not merely be surprising-and-confusing, but interesting that it's surprising-and-confusing, it needs to be a situation where by default, you wouldn't expect it to be surprising/confusing (at least in that particular way)
Hm. I have been interpreting it as having more of a 'concerning!' element to it. More like when your arch-nemesis surprisingly moves into a house on the same street as you than when your true love does. Am I wrong?
As I said in the post, there are positive, negative and neutral valences for wuckles. Sometimes you say "weird" and you mean "and, bad", sometimes you mean "and, pleasantly surprisingly good".
"Wuckles" means "I am surprised and confused, and, it's kinda interesting that I'm surprised and confused."
[...] if you were gonna say "wha?" because you were a bit confused. But, something about it felt silly enough to warrant adding an 'uckles' to the end of it.
[...] wanted to say "huh" but something felt interesting about the huh and I wanted to draw extra attention to it.
I like this style of language creation, but I'm a bit confused. It could be that:
- "-uckles" is an intensity modifier for when you want to draw more attention to something than would be implied without the addition of "-uckles".
- "-uckles" is a tone modifier to make something softer & sillier. "Fuck" is a harsh sentiment, but "fuckles" has humour to it. "Wha?" may carry a sentiment of disdainful disbelief, while "wuckles" carries the disbelief but removes the disdain.
- "-uckles" is a self reflective marker. Just saying "Fuck" or "wha?" is a statement about the situation, but "fuckles" and "wuckles" also expresses something about the speaker. Possibly it specifically expresses that the speaker finds it interesting that they are expressing the sentiment they are expressing, so "wha?" means "this situation is weird" but "wuckles" might mean "it's interesting that I think this situation is weird".
Or maybe it's some combination or amalgamation of those meanings?
Every now and then, I say "wuckles" next to a person who I am work trialing, or who for some other reason cares about not looking dumb in front of me.
They casually-but-frantically google "wuckles" in the background to try to figure out what I meant. The only google result for "wuckles" is an urban dictionary response which is not what I meant by it, and it's pretty clear from context it's not what I meant by it. They are confused.
This post is for the third such person, should they appear one day.
Wuckles (usually pronounced "Wuckles!") is an exclamation I make. For a long time, I didn't really know what it meant, I just knew a wuckles when I saw one.
Eventually, I saw a LessWrong quick take that made me really want a "wuckles" react, and then I was kinda confused why I needed a wuckles react, instead of any of our existing epistemic reacts. This forced me to sus out "what makes something a wuckles?"
"Wuckles" means "I am surprised and confused, and, it's kinda interesting that I'm surprised and confused."
Sometimes, you have a pleasant wuckles.
You are walking down the street and a man in a suit appears from an alleyway leading a parade of dwarfs juggling balloons in a heavily corporate neighborhood where you wouldn't normally expect that.
Why is there a bunch of circus dwarfs? Why are they led by a man in a suit? I don't know. But it's delightful.
Wuckles!
Sometimes, you have an unpleasant wuckles.
Sometimes, a bureaucracy decides to make me do something ridiculous, and it not only is annoying and unpleasant but it is very weird. Why would the insurance company be motivated to find out this weird obscure fact about me? Why are they making it my problem?
Wuckles!
Sometimes, you have a mild wuckles.
A package has arrived for me at Lighthaven. I do not remember ordering any packages to Lighthaven. Why is this happening? Idk. It's probably not a big deal. But, wuckles.
Sometimes, you aren't even sure what kind of wuckles you have.
Sam Altman has been... fired from OpenAI? Is that good? Is that bad? I don't know! Why is it happening? I don't know! What implications does this have for the AI geopolitical landscape? I don't know.
WUCKLES!??
Wuckles vs Huckles vs Fuckles
The etymology of "wuckles" is that, several years ago, I want to swear but be adorable instead of mean, and I started saying "fuckles!". Fuckles is a word for when you are upset but it is kinda delightful.
But then, sometimes I wasn't upset. But I wanted sort of the vibe of "Fuckles" but... idk, like, if you were gonna say "wha?" because you were a bit confused. But, something about it felt silly enough to warrant adding an 'uckles' to the end of it.
Meanwhile, for extremely mild wuckles, I sometimes say "huckles" which is might like I wanted to say "huh" but something felt interesting about the huh and I wanted to draw extra attention to it.
You can mix-and-match uckles with other front-syllables that fit whatever vibe you are into.
Wuckles, the missing epistemic emotion
But, Wuckles has had some Staying Power that fuckles and huckles have not, because I think it actually articulated an important void in the mix of epistemic-emotions. Yeah, in some sense it's just "surprise and confusion" but it has a flavor that is sort of unique to itself once you get the knack for seeing it. My ability to express my internal state would be impoverished without "wuckles" in my inventory.