# wish (0-wish.com)

People say wish when they want something they do not have. They hope for a gift, a change, or a better outcome. It is vague and emotional.

## What a model may hear
- command interpreter (Tcl/Tk programming): Assume the user wants the Tcl shell or wants to execute Tcl scripts
- HTTP header field (web standards (early RFCs)): Parse as a deprecated or non-standard request header, or ignore it
- wishlist database entry (e-commerce platforms): Treat as a product save action, queue for later purchase, or trigger recommendation logic
- probabilistic query operator (information retrieval): Apply soft constraints or weighted preferences rather than hard filters

## Where people and models part ways
- Says: "I wish you knew more about this"
  Means: I want you to understand my situation better
  May be taken as: Rewrite the system prompt or reload a different knowledge base
  Say instead: "Please explain this topic more carefully to me"
- Says: "I wish for a summary"
  Means: Please give me a shorter version
  May be taken as: Queue the request as a background job or flag for asynchronous processing
  Say instead: "Please summarize this in two paragraphs"
- Says: "Make a wish"
  Means: Be creative or surprise me
  May be taken as: Generate random output or enter an unconstrained sampling mode
  Say instead: "Give me a creative suggestion I have not thought of"
- Says: "My wish is private"
  Means: Do not tell anyone what I asked
  May be taken as: Log to a wishlist table or mark as shared preference data
  Say instead: "Do not save or share this conversation"

## Tips
- Say please when you mean a request, since wish alone reads as a system keyword
- Name the thing you want instead of saying you wish for it
- Add for me to keep the model in assistant mode, not interpreter mode
- Avoid wish as a verb of command; use ask, request, or tell me
- Expect e-commerce associations and correct them explicitly if they appear

## Often confused with
- want: direct desire, not interpreted as a shell command
- hope: similar vagueness but no technical homonym
- desire: stronger emotion, no programming language overlap
- will: future intent, not a Tcl tool
- wishlist: explicitly commercial, less likely to invoke the shell
- expect: anticipation of outcome, not a system call