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Before the Agents

Staying Human in the Age of Intelligent Machines

By Derrick M. Johnson II

A personal story and practical exploration of grief, reinvention, artificial intelligence, creativity, and what it means to remain human alongside increasingly capable machines.

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When technology rewrites what’s possible, what happens to who you know yourself to be?

As artificial intelligence changes how we work, create, and make decisions, the questions become deeply personal: What makes me valuable? What comes next? And what do I want to keep distinctly human?

In Before the Agents, Derrick M. Johnson II draws on his own life and reinvention to explore those questions, pairing personal experience with practical ways to use AI. His story becomes a starting point for examining your own: what you’ve built, what you’re ready to question, and who you want to become.

01 / The Book

Before the Agents

Staying Human in the Age of Intelligent Machines

Derrick M. Johnson II

Part personal story, part practical guide, Before the Agents draws on Derrick M. Johnson II’s own experiences of grief, reinvention, leadership, and creativity to explore what happens when increasingly capable technology changes not only what we can do, but how we understand our own value.

For anyone trying to understand their place in a changing world, and anyone responsible for helping others find theirs.

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02 / The Soundtrack

This soundtrack is part of the architecture of the book.

Each chapter of Before the Agents ends with two songs chosen to extend the emotional idea of the pages you just read.

They are not meant to explain the chapter.

They are meant to open another room.

The page is the structure.

The music is the atmosphere.

The reader completes the room.

The first two songs serve as opening credits. The final two serve as closing credits.

Listen as you read, return to individual pairs, or play the full sequence from beginning to end. However you listen, the sequence matters.

Listen Through the Book

Each pair follows the emotional architecture of a chapter. Listen straight through or return to the section you just finished reading.

  1. Opening Credits

    Introduction: Before We Begin

    • I Was HereBeyoncé
    • Beautiful DayU2

    Legacy meets daylight. The book begins with the question of what a life leaves behind, then opens a window before the harder excavation begins.

  2. Chapter One

    The Moment Everything Changed

    • One Sweet DayMariah Carey and Boyz II Men
    • AngelSarah McLachlan

    Grief moves from communal remembrance into private prayer.

  3. Chapter Two

    Prompting Is Leadership

    • Man in the MirrorMichael Jackson
    • TalkKhalid and Disclosure

    Before instruction comes reflection. Before leadership works, language has to get honest.

  4. Chapter Three

    The Personal Board of Directors

    • We Are FamilySister Sledge
    • Family AffairMary J. Blige

    Support is chosen, complicated, loving, loud, and occasionally in need of its own group chat.

  5. Chapter Four

    Building the Context Engine

    • Because You Loved MeCéline Dion
    • Safe and SoundCapital Cities

    First, the human witness. Then, the system trying to preserve some form of safety.

  6. Chapter Five

    The Taste Gap

    • FreeUltra Naté
    • 100% Pure LoveCrystal Waters

    Permission finds its body. The work stops trying to be approved and starts trying to be alive.

  7. Chapter Six

    The Career Strategist

    • SurvivorDestiny's Child
    • Dog Days Are OverFlorence and the Machine

    Rejection gets a beat, then the old life finally loses the chase.

  8. Chapter Seven

    The Creative Director

    • Just DanceLady Gaga
    • Let's DanceDavid Bowie

    Creation moves from instinct to invitation. The room becomes the strategy.

  9. Chapter Eight

    The Compensation Negotiator

    • RespectAretha Franklin
    • Bodak YellowCardi B

    Value gets named out loud, then walks in like it already knows the rate.

  10. Chapter Nine

    The Investment Analyst

    • Money TreesKendrick Lamar and Jay Rock
    • OpportunitiesPet Shop Boys

    Money becomes mirror, then strategy. Desire meets calculation.

  11. Chapter Ten

    The Framework Builder

    • Everybody Wants to Rule the WorldTears for Fears
    • ChangesZHU

    Power gets mapped, then the system starts shifting under your feet.

  12. Chapter Eleven

    Training Taste

    • Express YourselfMadonna
    • ControlJanet Jackson

    The standard gets named, then authorship takes the wheel.

  13. Chapter Twelve

    The Doubter's Advantage

    • Fix YouColdplay
    • no tears left to cryAriana Grande

    The spiral becomes repair, then repair becomes movement.

  14. Chapter Thirteen

    The Iteration Economy

    • Try AgainAaliyah
    • Harder, Better, Faster, StrongerDaft Punk

    Revision becomes rhythm. Improvement becomes a loop, but taste decides what survives.

  15. Chapter Fourteen

    The Things AI Should Never Own

    • HumanRag'n'Bone Man
    • Never EnoughKelly Clarkson

    Capability meets boundary. Even the most optimized life can still leave the soul hungry.

  16. Chapter Fifteen

    The Emotional Side of Augmentation

    • Hold OnWilson Phillips
    • Hold My HandJess Glynne

    Support becomes something you can feel, not just something a system can optimize.

  17. Chapter Sixteen

    The Augmented Human Manifesto

    • UnstoppableSia
    • Don't Stop Me NowQueen

    Force becomes motion. The manifesto stops explaining itself and starts moving like it has somewhere to be.

  18. Closing Exercise

    The Five Soul Questions

    • BraveSara Bareilles
    • Keep Your Head UpAndy Grammer

    The reader turns inward, tells the truth, and returns to life with a little more courage.

  19. Closing Credits

    A Final Word

    • Thank YouDido
    • The Final CountdownEurope

    Gratitude gets the closing credits. Then the book refuses to leave quietly.

03 / Beyond the Book

A conversation about how we work, create, lead, and remain human.

Before the Agents can become a starting point for conversations about how increasingly capable technology is changing our work, creativity, leadership, decisions, and sense of human value.

Organizations · Conferences · Teams · Learning Experiences · Bulk Copies

04 / Author + Curator

Derrick M. Johnson II

Author · Experience Strategist · DJ

Derrick M. Johnson II builds experiences at the intersection of creativity, technology, and human connection.

His creative practice as DJ DJ is grounded in sequencing, tension, release, memory, and emotional architecture. Those same instincts shape Before the Agents, where ideas are arranged not only to inform, but to move. The soundtrack gives each chapter an emotional afterlife through music.

Explore DJ DJ

The soundtrack is one way into the story.
The book is where it begins.

Available now on Amazon

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