Discovering the RSS Explanation Problem

I remember the exact moment when it first became apparent to me that there was such a thing as an explanation problem.  I was at a small conference on Silicon Valley in early 2004.  There was a CEO of a start up there and during his talk, he mentioned RSS.  Someone raised their hand and asked the question "What is RSS?"

This CEO's responses to the question, and I'm not kidding, was "RSS is an XML-based content syndication format." As you might expect, this was met with a look of bewilderment.