Could Anyone Have Briefed Hamilton? The Work AI Will Never Be Asked to Do

Originating Work AI Cannot Be Asked For: what the creation of Hamilton teaches leaders about developing identity, creativity and judgment inside a team

Julian Reeve ran the music for Hamilton on Broadway and won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Music Direction in 2017, and he points to how that show came into existence as the clearest case he knows. Nobody requested a hip hop musical about Alexander Hamilton; it came out of one person's identity, taste and judgment working together long before an audience existed to want it. Reeve argues that organizations rolling out AI now treat creativity as something to be requested and scaled, which works for execution and fails for origination, because a request can only reach for what somebody already has in mind. He breaks down the three things he watched hold that show together, identity, creativity and judgment, and how a leader builds them into a team instead of hoping they turn up. Listeners leave able to name the part of their work nobody could have specified for them, which is the part worth defending.

About Julian Reeve

Julian Reeve, podcast guest

Author and International Keynote Speaker on Unmistakable Identity™ and Human Advantage in the Age of AI.

20+ Broadway productions worldwide7 Productions in London's West EndTEDx Speaker On perfectionism and sustainable performance3 methodologies Perfect Equilibrium®, Unmistakable Identity™ and Intentional Synthesis™

Julian Reeve is an international keynote speaker helping leaders and organizations create Human Advantage in the age of AI. He works between Los Angeles and London.

Born and educated in Cambridge, England, Julian spent 25 years in elite performance, working on more than 20 Broadway productions worldwide including seven in London's West End. After moving to the United States he became music director of Hamilton, winning the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Music Direction, conducting record-breaking productions in San Francisco and Washington D.C., and leading the Puerto Rico production alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda.

In 2017, after conducting a performance of the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton, Julian suffered a stress-induced heart attack. He was 43 years old. Two years later, a repetitive strain injury ended his performing career altogether.

These events provoked a profound re-evaluation of the relationship between achievement, burnout, identity, and work design. His findings formed the foundations of his Perfect Equilibrium and Intentional Synthesis frameworks, and informed his TEDx Talk on perfectionism, his children's book Captain Perfection and the Secret of Self-Compassion, and articles for major media outlets including The Hill and Fast Company Magazine.

Today, Julian's work is built around one powerful idea: Unmistakable Identity will become the foundation of human advantage as AI redefines work and human value.

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204. Julian Reeve. Unmistakable Identity.
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