drupal basics

Back in the day (only 18 months ago in fact), whenever I started a new Drupal project I would read through the entire modules list and download each module I thought could be useful for the website I was developing. Once the contributed modules grew to such an extent that it would take me half a day to read through the entire list, my method to become acquainted with the current state of modules became prohibitive. Today, it would likely take several days to read through the entire list of available modules, and it would overload anyone's brain to process the sheer quantity of information and inspired ideas of relationships between modules.

What the hell is this Drupal thing anyway?

Drupal is a content management system, and it manages content, of course. But what does that actually mean? How does Drupal manage content? What are its basic building blocks to achieve this goal?

I had to introduce Drupal to a couple of webmasters who had never worked with it before. They had researched it themselves, and another Drupaler had tried to explain it to them as well. Even so, they still did not understand what it was about.