When you want to learn 'A', but before you learn 'A' you need to learn 'B', and to learn 'B' you have to learn 'C', etc [closed]

Solution 1:

In the software development world, there is a humorous term called "yak shaving" that describes a very similar situation of cascading dependencies.

As noted on https://americanexpress.io/yak-shaving/:

"Yak shaving refers to a task, that leads you to perform another related task and so on, and so on — all distracting you from your original goal.

In other words, we want to start some task, but there is something that precedes that one, and so on, ad infinitum.

The internet is full of examples of yak shaving. One thoughtful example that I like is at https://blog.gruntwork.io/introducing-the-yak-shaving-series-247e7f20f81, where the author likens software development to a fractal:

".... when you actually start doing the project, you begin to zoom in, and realize there is quite a bit of detail hiding in every corner. And each of those details seems to have more details attached to it, and each of those has more, and so on."

Bringing this back to your example - where subject A has a prerequisite of B, which in turn has a prerequisite of C, etc - I would refer to it as an infinite regression of dependencies ... or simply as yak shaving if you want the humorous term. :)

Solution 2:

I've worked at a number of software development companies where it would be called:

going down a rabbit hole

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/go+down+the+rabbit+hole

To enter into a situation or begin a process or journey that is particularly strange, problematic, difficult, complex, or chaotic, especially one that becomes increasingly so as it develops or unfolds. (An allusion to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.)

(Emphasis mine)

Additionally, you might describe a specific task as a rabbit hole if you're likely to find those characteristics once you start working on it...