Also known as the XY problem [1]. It's almost tragic how often the best opening question to a request is "what are you really trying to do?". The fact that it i

Also known as the XY problem [1]. It's almost tragic how often the best opening question to a request is "what are you really trying to do?". The fact that it is a widely-known Stackexchange anti-pattern is pretty telling. [1]: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66377/what-is-the-xy-problem http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66377/what-is-the-xy...