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Someone made an entire web page describing a pretty common communication anti-pattern that I see in every organization I work in.

You'll be heads down on a problem and then get a DM that says, "Can I ask you something?" or even just "Hey".

Now I have to make a call, based on very little info, whether to immediately break from my current stream of work or break from it when I come to a stopping point.

I could more effectively make that call with actual details on what the ask is. Or quickly point you to someone who can be of more help.

With "Can I ask you something?", the onus is now on me to ask follow up questions to pull the details of the ask out of the person.

This also intersects with another communication anti-pattern I see all the time -- asking a question as a DM when putting the question in a public channel will "expose more surface area" for the question to be answered.

The solution is not to ask to ask, but just to ask. Someone who is idling on the channel and only every now and then glances what's going on is unlikely to answer to your "asking to ask" question, but your actual problem description may pique their interest and get them to answer.