describe intention directly before ask a question

Before asking a question, it's a good habit to describe your intention clearly. Below is a real story happened between me and a coworker.

  CW: hey, do you know how to do B on windows?
  ME: o, yes. You can:
      1. Blah blah
      2. Blah blah
      3. Blah blah
      But why you want to do this?
  CW: hmmm, because I want to do A.
  ME: Do A? Why ask B? They're not related.
  CW: Why? According to concept C, A is controlled by B.
  ME: No, you misunderstood concept C. It's blah blah
  CW: O, i see.


If he asked how to do A at the beginning, we both can save a lot of time.
When we need to ask a question, it's a sign that we don't understand the stuff very well. Then we'd better describe our intention directly. If we ask a different topic by our own deduction, which may be a misunderstanding, we may be on the wrong track.