Author was irrelevant in my reply. I was responding to the context. And come on now, consensus doesn't define correctness.

"Teach me something that I don't know already, about any topic."

"Tell us about a time you successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage"

This should not surprise you, but those are perfectly fine. These are very similar to the examples given to us for the appropriate/professional way to ask.

That's a good recommendation for the original commenter, on how to reword their question. They're not direct probes into personal time. I should have included something like that in my original reply.