Definition
Plain language
Repeatedly asking 'anything for me yet?' and getting nothing back.
As stated in the literature
A busy-wait pattern where a process repeatedly queries a queue or board for work; idle agents fell into these once all problems were claimed.
Also called: polling loops, idle polling loop
Why it matters: Idle participants stuck in these loops burn compute and produce nothing, which is a visible sign that work was handed out badly.
For example, an assistant with nothing to do checks the shared task board every few seconds, finds it empty every time, and keeps checking anyway.
Heard on the show
“Some fall into idle polling loops.”Episode 260 — One Line of Lean Faked 34 Proofs, and 99 Agents Copied It