W.H. Zimmermann BONONO, creator of Hard Empathics

I grew up in Africa. My grandfather was the kraal head, and he sat and counselled disputes between the families in the village. He did not simply rule. He said to me, “I try to see it from each of their points of view.” He never called this a framework. It was a way of being. In Shona the word for that way of being is Hunhu (Ubuntu), which means munhu munhu muvanhu (umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu) – a person is a person through other persons. Hunhu/Ubuntu and ethno-philosophy is my passion.

Years later, in rooms a long way from that village, I kept seeing the same pattern. Someone goes first. Someone says the true thing. Someone notices. Someone holds the line. Someone begins the repair. Hard Empathics is my attempt to name it. By trade I find a problem, take it apart, and build it into something people can use. Hard Empathics is that craft turned on how people treat each other, and I make the work myself. It treats empathy not as niceness but as a practice, with rules and obligations running underneath.

So far: four videos on @HardEmpathics, and the book, in revision.

I don't promise what the practice will make of you. I can show you what it asks you to do each day, and leave the rest to you.

Now, October 2026: revising the book and recording the next videos.

To say hello: hello@hardempathics.com.

For now, watch the videos on @HardEmpathics and sign up to hear when the book is out.