A few years ago, a friend introduced me to a recording of the mind-blowing musical Hamilton (if you haven’t seen or heard it, do yourself a favour and check it out). Our whole family was, for a time, obsessed with it.
A few months after that, I was preparing for a talk at Xebia in Amsterdam. I was wondering how I could spice up the talk a little by doing something whimsical and lighthearted and a little silly, and I had an hour or so of free time, and this musical rattling around in my head.
The result was a two-minute rap on all the things that humans can do and that tools can’t do. The audience at Xebia seemed to enjoy it, so I took the show on the road and delivered the rap at several conferences and meetups over the next couple of years.
A couple of months ago, a fellow I had never met named Larry Petersen dropped a message into my emailbox, telling me that he had done something even more whimsical and even sillier: he had edited audio of one of the recorded performances of the rap, and set it to a backing beat with accompanying video.
I’ve done some work with video myself, so I’m well aware of the time effort this must have taken. I’m very flattered and very grateful.
Thank you, Larry!