Technology drives speed and anxiety. We click to agree or even authorize an event or exchange, payment or information, and as soon as we click, we want the result delivered, no delay. Often we are given comfort messages that the technology is still thinking of us, still engaged; on computers we have moving bars, dancing icons and patience hints, on phones we get musak interrupted with reassurance of how important our call is and in queues for shop or train we get digitized displays of how many people are before us and how long we might expect to wait. Much of this is of course helpful information. But these sensory and cognitive invasions of our waiting time may serve to deplete rather than enhance our patience, even if they prolong it. […]