Tourist and Flâneur

Our jadedness with our surroundings disappear when we sometimes take the wrong bent of the road and are lost. We feel a bit scared but certainly more alive. We see more! Every rock, branch, street sign, tree, etc. is now visible. We are forced to be adventurers and absorb everything around us so that we can make the most use of it. So alive are we that the feeling stays with us and we want to get lost again, even if for a short while, to feel alive.

A concept from  Nassim Taleb’s terrific book ‘Antifragile’ is that of the Tourist and Flâneur. Taleb defines a Flâneur as:

Someone who, unlike a tourist, makes a decision opportunistically at every step to revise his schedule (or his destination) so he can imbibe things based on new information obtained…….A non-narrative approach to life.

The tourist has a checklist and is focused on putting a tick-mark next to it, meanwhile the Flaneur aimlessly saunters around constantly revising his plans based on what he experiences. While the tourist identifies only the things he had wanted and matches it with his surroundings, the flaneur assimilates new things from his environment to enter his being.

Most importantly, the tourist is stuck in his past (plans) whereas the flaneur is alive to the present. The tourist can suffer for this trade-off when nothing around him matches what he desired, leading to frustration. Narrowing his possible routes he also doesn't give a chance to options that might serve his final goal in a much bigger way than he had the ability to imagine.

I like listening to King's of Convenience after I have had a really stimulating day. Listening to them somehow cools my mind. In their song Homesick I found a home to the tourists thought:

All the other options held before me....would wither in the light of my plan

A Writer in the Drawer

As someone who journals at length almost on a daily basis, I have shown little interest in sharing my own words over time. When I did I limited myself for I wasn’t sure if they made any sense to share it to the outside world at all. But the more I write its becoming clearer to me ... I myself need to be reminded of some of these writings, ideas, concepts, mental maps and ways of thinking - for some of them have helped me get through the thick and the lean.

These are thoughts that have emanated from reading books, watching films, traveling places, observing strangers and allowing life to carve my mind. I am used to making pretty, smart and even downright ugly pictures. What am not used to is crafting words elegantly. But hoarse as my voice maybe I have to start, for there is a lot to express, there is a lot to note for my future self and there is a lot to share.

Judgment Prison

Through the lens that you judge you imprison yourself with what you should or should not do. Your judgement first and foremost curtails your own actions. Your words of criticism today become the walls of your prison tomorrow.

You say to yourself “I’m never gonna be caught dead doing that” but life generally has other plans.