I think there is a very subtle point here worth noting. The people that Geek Boy was talking to obviously understood the similarity between a computer monitor a

I think there is a very subtle point here worth noting. The people that Geek Boy was talking to obviously understood the similarity between a computer monitor and a television screen. But because of the context, where they were being addressed by someone they knew to be an expert about things way outside their experience, they assumed when he brought up a problem that it was also outside their experience. Had one of their own colleagues brought up the exact same point (and they easily could have), I expect they would've understood it immediately. It was partly their assumptions about their own ignorance that prevented understanding in this case. I see this occasionally in myself, where I'm talking with an expert in a field I'm unfamiliar with, I tend to assume that whatever they have to say about it will be outside my understanding and so I'm slower to understand something that, if it were communicated (even in the same language) by someone I felt more parity with, I would get much more quickly.