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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. Many of the talks that we share change the way we think. Some change the way we work. This talk may change the way you use your desktop.
Tonight, I'm going to share with you my one simple trick that's going to make your life a lot easier. It's going to protect your data, and it's going to calm you down.
That's comedian and visual artist Alan Resnick, who's best known for his surrealist work with the Cartoon Network's beloved nighttime TV block, Adult Swim. But in this absurdist talk, he's here to tell us that we've been using our computers wrong, or specifically our desktops. And it is completely, sincerely, 100% earnest. Really. Or is it?
If you follow my simple rule, save it to your desktop, you're not only going to have an awesome desktop, you're actually going to have a wicked awesome life.
And just a quick heads up, this talk is quite visual. So as I do sometimes, I will be jumping in at a few points throughout to describe key moments on stage. If you are able, please visit TED.com to watch the video version also. It's coming up right after a short break.
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Chapter 2: What is the simple trick for using your desktop effectively?
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And now, our TED Talk of the day.
My name is Alan Resnick, and if you don't know me, I'm a bit of a tech head. What does that mean? It means an average day for me is spent surfing the web, checking my emails, and... just clicking on links. That's sort of me in a nutshell. And when I'm not doing that, I tour the country, and I teach people how to use computers.
And the number one thing I've noticed all over is that people are afraid of computers. They're scared. And don't get me started on the internet, you guys. Has anyone here ever been online? Two, three hands? You guys got to get online. It's incredible. I'm telling you, there's some crazy stuff online, you guys.
I don't have time to get into it right now, but they have photos and videos of people online, and they're performing a kind of love that I am not comfortable with. Okay? And they have your data. They do. These sick people have your data. Are you comfortable with that? I'm not. But I have a question for you guys, and it is a real question. How do you use your computer?
How do you guys use your computers? Just curious. Can we get her a mic? How do you use your computer?
Well, I usually use my computer for work, so emails and, you know, sending messages to folks.
Okay, shut up. No. Internet. This is wrong. This is incorrect. I hate to say this, but you're using your computer wrong. You know, not use. I don't love that word, use. We don't use computers, do we? No, I think of computers a little like grandparents, actually. You wouldn't use your grandmother, right? But your grandmother can make your life easier if you use her properly.
So what is the proper way to use a computer? Tonight, I'm going to share with you my one simple trick that's going to make your life a lot easier, it's going to protect your data, and it's going to calm you down. OK, here it is. Yes, desktops. What is he saying? Save it to your desktop. I can't hear him. What are you saying? I'm saying save it to your desktop. It's as simple as that.
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Chapter 3: Why do people feel afraid of using computers?
And while Alan's talking, a literal desk is brought out onto the stage, the analog desktop, so to speak. And on top of it is a lot of stuff.
If you follow my simple rule, save it to your desktop, you're not only going to have an awesome desktop, you're actually going to have a wicked awesome life. Now check this out. This is cool. The desktop... is a little like my desk's top surface, right? So I have file folders on the computer, and guess what? I got them here too. What kind of things can you save to your desktop? Anything.
You can have photos, emails, PDFs. Those are like packets. You can have movies, video games, key codes, MP3s, zip disks. These are all useful things that you can save to your desktop. So it's sort of an organizational technique. So I'll give you an example. Let's say your dad emails you some pics of the lawn. All you have to do is, OK, yeah, you got to just save them to the desktop.
Just save those right to the desktop. And after you do that, you're going to want to print out a copy for yourself, which you're going to place on your desktop. So now you always know where everything is. You're not going to lose anything. I'll give you another example. I'm just going to pick a file at random. Let's just pick a random file. Okay, eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a tiger by the tail.
Oh, that's a little embarrassing. This is actually an old poem I wrote. Egg on my face. It says, why whisper when a yell can travel just as far? A whisper yelled is a whisper heard. Hmm, hmm, hmm. So where did I save that? Let's see. Where did I save that? It looks like I put that on OK. That's C5. That's the bottom right corner of my desk. So it should be here. Oh, boom, here it is. Wow!
You can clap for that. That's cool. This is amazing. This is amazing. Now, I'm noticing there's a couple eagle-eyed viewers in the audience, and they're looking at my computer and they're going, something's up. Something's up. You're going, Alan, where the heck is your toolbar? Or doc. Some people call it doc. I call it a toolbar. Where's your toolbar? Well, guess what?
My computer doesn't have a toolbar. Why? I'm not addicted to my toolbar. You think America's got an obesity problem? You think we have a fentanyl problem? Folks, we have a toolbar problem. Stop using your toolbar. There is room for everything you need right here on the desktop. This is silly. Um... This is... My girlfriend, my ex-girlfriend actually made this for me.
Here, Alan picks up a 3D papier-mĆ¢chĆ© object painted blue, a creature of some sort.
And, uh... I don't know. It's silly, but I like to look at it. It makes me happy to see this, so I, um... I keep it on my desk while I work. But, uh... Yeah. No. No, it's not in the computer. Yet. But literally anything can be saved to your desktop. All you have to do is rig up a camera around a bucket at 90 degrees.
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Chapter 4: How can saving files to your desktop improve organization?
You're not going to get that job. Your data, it's going to be leaking on the floor. People are going to be slipping. They're going to be slipping on your data. You can say bye-bye to your kids. They're going to be living on their desktops. Mark my words. In one year's time, people will literally be blah, blah, blah, blah, talking to their computers. Whoa.
In two years, people are going to be walking around with glasses so powerful, they're never going to need to come home. And in three years' time, computers will have gotten so small, they will literally fit on a piece of breakable glass. Okay, thank you so much. My name is Alan Resnick. I really hope that helped. You've been incredible. I love you so much. Thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you. That was Alan Resnick at TED Next 2025. If you're curious about TED's curation, visit TED.com slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today. TED Talks Daily is a podcast from TED. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Lucy Little, Emma Taubner, and Tansika Sangmarnivong.
Additional support from Daniela Balarezo, Christopher Faisy-Bogan, Valentina Bohannini, Banban Chang, Brian Green, and Lainey Lott. Learn more at podcasts.ted.com. I am Elise Hume. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.
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