Sure, they said they know what is going on. The essence of my statement was that they don't know yet :-) You're assuming self-reflection is always perfect, I am saying they are on a path... I don't really see a contradiction here...

Kottke, as an often self-reflective writer, is likely to know much more about his internal mental state than you do. That's my point. So it's not so much that I am assuming he has perfect self-reflection as it is that your wild speculation is much more likely to be off the mark than accurate. That's all I meant.