An elderly grandpa was learning to use the new computer his grandson had bought him. His grandson patiently showed him everything: how to use the mouse, open programs, and browse the internet.
A few days later, his grandson visited his grandpa. The grandpa was sitting at the computer, looking at the screen with a surprised and slightly angry expression.
“Grandson,” said the grandpa, “this computer must be broken. Everything was great yesterday, but today nothing works!”
His grandson approached curiously. “What happened, grandpa? What are you trying to do?”
The grandpa pointed with his index finger to an icon on the screen. “I clicked on that ‘Recycle Bin’ thing. You wouldn’t believe how many files were in it! They all seemed useless, so I deleted them all.”
His grandson looked on in shock. “You deleted them all? Grandpa, what have you done? That ‘Recycle Bin’ is where your deleted files are temporarily stored! If you deleted them from there too…”
The grandpa shrugged. “So what? It’s trash, isn’t it? Why would I keep trash?”
His grandson put his hands on his head. “Grandpa, you just deleted everything on the computer!”
The grandpa smiled. “Oh, really? So I’ve cleaned up the computer’s memory. Now it’ll run faster, right?”
His grandson took a deep breath and mumbled: “Yes, grandpa. It’ll run so fast now, you won’t be able to do anything at all.“