Havel havalim. Hakol havel.*
Nearly three thousand years ago, Qohelet chose an extraordinarily simple image to speak about existence.
In Hebrew, Havel means breath, vapor, something that appears and fades away. The original term expresses this idea more accurately than the word “vanity” traditionally used in English translations.
*“Vapor of vapors, all is vapor,” says the man who explores power, pleasure, work, wealth and wisdom, only to encounter their transient nature.
Demanding permanence from what is made to pass creates suffering.
Passage: We are passing through.
Our life is movement.
Passage invites us to recognize this condition.
We are part of the movement we are trying to understand.
Our story is singular. Our condition is shared.
Between arrival and departure, an entire life unfolds.
And then a simple, essential question arises:
How do we want to move through it?
Justesse: Finding the right measure.
Justesse is the quality of something that finds its proper place: a perception, a word, a decision, an action.
It emerges when we look at a situation with enough clarity to distinguish the facts, our perception, and the narratives we build around them.
That clarity allows us to adjust our position in relation to what is happening.
Justesse belongs to the specific moment. It is found in the relationship between who we are, what is happening, and what we can do.
It does not force. It adjusts.
Pointfulness: a practical philosophy of Justesse
The practical philosophy of Pointfulness grew out of an exploration of human experience through the eyes of an engineer: observing, distinguishing, understanding, and seeking the right relationship between things.
Havel confronts us with the transient nature of what we try to hold on to. From this arise many of the illusions that accompany both our successes and our failures.
How can we become aware of them so that we do not build our lives upon them?
Passage places us within a finite, singular, ever-changing existence, shaped by a human condition we all share.
How can we travel through our own journey without losing ourselves along the way?
Justesse transforms clarity into a way of being and acting. It helps us discern what is called for here and now, while also recognizing the real cost of our decisions.
What would be the right thing to do — and what are we willing to assume in order to do it?
Pointfulness brings these three perspectives together into a single disposition:
To see what is passing, understand that we are passing too, and find the right way to be within it.
Pointfulness is the disposition that allows us to live with justesse.
A philosophy born from a journey
I am Alain Kaczorowski, founder of Pointfulness.
My path began far from academic philosophy: a degree in business engineering, more than thirty years of business and international experience, institutional responsibilities, and a life shaped across different cultures.
Alongside this path, one question stayed with me for years: what can we understand about our experience when we learn to clearly distinguish reality, our perceptions, and the illusions we build around them?
That search gave rise to my book Vida Singular y el Triángulo de las Ilusiones (2015, Legatum Editores), then to Pointfulness, and today to the reflection around Havel, Passage and Justesse.
My approach remains the same: to observe the human condition with curiosity, rigor, and a certain engineer’s way of looking at things.
Pointfulness is developed and sustained by the Fundación Pointfulness, a non-profit organization created in Chile to preserve and share this space for reflection independently.
