The "weekend" question is a good one. But: think about this. It implicitly carries your own agenda, but doesn't reveal it. What do I mean? The person answering

The "weekend" question is a good one. But: think about this. It implicitly carries your own agenda, but doesn't reveal it. What do I mean? The person answering probably wonders whether his weekend adventures will compare favorably with yours. "I went to Tahoe!" "I caught a pop fly ball in Candlestick Park!" "I stayed home and binge-watched Gilligans Island." "Loser!" Asking about the future is less competitive. Answers can range from "I'm going over to Sand Hill Road to get my investors to sign off on my IPO papers" to "StoopidCo sends this corrupt XML feed...I have to figure out how to ingest it" to "I'm going home sick, I feel terrible." In each case the answer is about the person speaking, not about you the questioner. Do you see the difference? It's really important.