Here, Kafka precisely describes the activity of the (male only) flaneur, who emerged in the second half of the 19th century. Much later, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the concept of the flaneur was taken up and modified in new, playful and analytical ways as psycho-geography: one walks about, or has only an abstract destination in mind, one’s movement influenced by all kinds of situations – and one thus experiences being alive. This, however, does not only apply to walking, but also to writing, which develops in the process of writing; similarly, this is also true for hearing or tasting, even in love or in life itself.  

Precisely this freedom to consider so-called reality as a world of possibilities promotes vitality and contradicts any form of defeatism. Possibilities, indeed meaningful and exciting possibilities, present themselves constantly. One only has to recognise and use them. Not least to the advantage of social existence and of a call to action.  

Unfortunately, very little is known about the author. He has published a few texts and is said to live in San Francisco. The above quote plausibly explains that, sometimes, deliberate thinking hinders insight because thinking often persists in the logical compulsion to transfer what we seek, or what we want to comprehend, to such logical deduction. A is followed by B etc. And this is the case although the often unfortunately stupid common sense, is, by way of exception, completely right when recommending that you should think of something else when you cannot remember a name, a date or a place. If we do so, the term we are looking for suddenly springs to mind, at least mostly it does. The reason for this is, of course, that, with this method, we have given ourselves over to free association, just trusting in the neuronal networks of our brains and, possibly, of our bodies too. Hence, when giving a talk and sensing that we will not remember a name or date in the next part of …