A delayed flight with no Wi-Fi is a rare chance to stare out a window and think. Take it.

Empty time is where most of your actual thinking gets done, and you almost never choose it. A delay takes the choice away, which is the only reason it works. The irritation you feel is mostly about losing the thing that was going to fill the hour, not about the hour itself.

The next time you are stuck with nothing, on a bus, in a waiting room, standing on the side of the field, try not filling it. Let your mind wander at whatever is unresolved and see where it goes. You will get ideas there that will not arrive while something is playing.