The rabbis explain that Moses had told the people that he would return by the sixth hour of the fortieth day. But Moses excluded the day of his ascent, while the people included it, so when the sixth hour came and went and Moses was nowhere to be seen, the people assumed that he was dead. The people are unwilling to wait even a few hours, and immediately beseech Aaron to make them gods, who take the place of Moses in leading them in the wilderness. These people, still spiritually enslaved, had made an idol of their own schedule, their own expectations, their own needs. They were unable to wait for God to act in God's own time.
Children are notoriously impatient.
To a young child waiting for friend to come over or a parent to come home, an hour can seem like an endless amount of time. As children grow up they learn the value of patience. However, all of us are prone to being impatient, to wanting everything to fit into our schedule. Barbara and I have found this approach particularly useful in raising children. Quite often, what they wanted to do fell through for one reason or another, and we never did have to make a decision.