How does a computer know what time it is?

Your laptop stays dead in a drawer for weeks. You open it. It instantly knows it’s 8:17 AM. Nobody told it. No one set the clock. Deep inside, a small internal battery quietly keeps time in the dark, counting seconds while the rest of the system sleeps. We spend our lives fighting time—worrying we're running late, feeling behind, or rushing the future. Your device doesn't worry about where it ought to be. It just keeps ticking, silently waiting for you to wake up. Maybe progress isn't about rushing to the finish line. It’s just about keeping your internal clock running, even when nobody is watching.