Are we talking about digital or analog electronics? AC or DC power? For me, a DC powered circuit with a clock and chips made sense but I never understood how analog circuits worked until I was introduced to the concept of the LRC circuit. It has a resistor, a capacitor and a inductor. As a software guy I am trained to think in terms of discreet components. Then I realized that when you put those 3 discrete components together that things really start to happen.