I get that this is a real problem, especially in tech support. And this write-up is better than others I've seen. At the same time, I think people referencing

I get that this is a real problem, especially in tech support. And this write-up is better than others I've seen. At the same time, I think people referencing this don't seem to understand how self-centered this perspective is. As the asker, you've got a stack of problems that might start with: well, I need to eat, so I got this job, so I need to do this task, ... (20 technical problems later), so I'm trying to do Y. How am I supposed to know how far up my stack _you_ want to go? If I knew I made a wrong step 3 problems ago, presumably I would have just asked about that problem. The suggestions here are fine. Still, I think it's more important that the responder have some empathy and be willing to go back and forth a bit to understand someone's problem instead of expecting the asker to guess what information the responder is going to want. Also, what's with the name "XY problem"? If "asking about Y when you want to do X" makes it an "XY problem", couldn't any problem involving any two things also be called an "XY problem"?