[Beltalowda]

This is the Robert McNamara strategy for answering questions: don't answer the question that was asked, instead answer the question you wanted to be asked, and by the end of it the asker will usually have forgotten that they actually asked a different question. It's pretty common, but I think few people were as explicit/honest about it as McNamara (later in life, that is).

[_s]

No - the person asking will not have forgotten, but those around will have.

Generally - in my experience - folks that genuinely want to answer or explain something will first rephrase the question, and/or ask more questions to understand what you are trying to ask, and then after their answer they open the dialogue with something akin to "does that answer your question?".

[drcongo]

This is known as ABCD: https://action-group.co.uk/the-art-of-bridging-how-to-use-th...