Pedal to the Metal: The Possibility Mindset

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This is a story of three guitarists
in the 1960S

and how one embraced technology
to change music forever,

and if you listen closely,

you hear a lesson
reverberating into the present.

When faced with something
new and revolutionary,

do you embrace it or dismiss it?

Our story begins in the 1950s,

as rock and roll explodes onto the scene.

Rock guitars of that era sound like this.

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Or this.

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But by 1967,

the sound of rock and roll
is about to change.

That's when VOX Amps
releases the wah-wah pedal,

a device that could make a guitar

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sing like a trumpet.

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Instead of...

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...your guitar can sound like...

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Pretty cool, right?

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As a promotional tool,

VOX Amps gives a wah-wah pedal
to our first guitarist,

Johnny Echols.

He plays lead guitar in Love,

a popular rock and roll band.

Echols gives the pedal a try.

But instead of hearing a trumpet...

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...or even a guitar...

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...all he hears is the wails
of dying sheep.

(sheep baaing)

So he dismisses the pedal.

Our second guitarist is Jimmy James,

a friend of Echols
and a backup guitar player.

Echols describes Jimmy James
as a journeyman.

He carries equipment and plays bit parts
in Little Richard's stage shows.

Jimmy James never finished high school,

but he's a lifelong learner
and an avid sci-fi reader.

So when he gets his hands
on a wah-wah pedal,

he's much more eager than Echols
to try it out.

And what about our third guitarist?

You might know him better as Jimi Hendrix.

Hendrix gains fame in the late 1960s

for his incredible play

and never-been-done-before far-out sound.

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Audiences can't stop raving.

He is the greatest guitar player
in the world.

Echols goes to a Jimi Hendrix concert
to see what all the fuss is about.

When Hendrix steps to the stage,
Echols can't believe it.

Yes, Jimi Hendrix is indeed,
as advertised,

the greatest guitar player in the world.

But what he truly can't believe
is that Jimi Hendrix is Jimi James!

The journeyman he once knew

had transformed himself
into a musical powerhouse

by relentlessly embracing
and practicing with new technology.

Hendrix was among the first
to use the VOX wah-wah pedal,

the fuzz tone pedal, and the Marshall amp.

He went so far as to hire
an engineer to modify pedals,

achieving even wilder sounds.

Echol's initial reaction
to the wah-wah pedal is natural.

New technology can be overwhelming,

and in the short term,

it feels easier to dismiss it.

Think about new inventions from the past
and the visionaries who embraced them.

Take the steam engine.

While many saw it as just a tool
for pumping water out of mines,

engineer Richard Trevithick
saw something more.

What if these machines
could carry us further than any horse?

Through relentless experimentation,

he created the first
steam-powered locomotive in 1804,

carving the path
for the railroad revolution.

This same spirit of embracing
new technology

emerged again with the birth of computing.

As a Navy Lieutenant in World War II,

Grace Hopper worked
with one of the world's first computers,

a room-sized machine
computing endless equations

for naval weapons and equipment.

While others just saw
a massive calculator,

Hopper envisioned computers
doing much more.

Her pioneering work on compilers
and programming languages

helped transform computers
from specialized machines

into platforms for creating the software
that powers today's world.

As the Internet emerged,

another opportunity arose

for those willing to embrace
something new.

Working on Wall Street,

Jeff Bezos noticed web usage
doubling every few months.

While others saw a way to send emails,

he envisioned a global marketplace

where anyone could buy anything, anywhere.

Starting with just selling books
from his garage,

he built Amazon into a company
that transformed how the world shops.

Those who embraced change
shaped the future.

We don't know for sure
what a future with AI looks like,

but what we do know

is that you can either
embrace technology and work with it,

or you can dismiss technology
and work against it.

The right mindset,

one of curiosity, adaptability,
and a willingness to embrace the unknown,

turns new technology
into an opportunity for innovation.

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It's this mindset that transforms Jimmy
James, the journeyman, into Jimmy Hendrix,

the legend.

If you are a teacher, you should check out
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If you are a student,

visit the links in the description for
more resources on how to use AI to learn.

Or if you are just curious to watch more
videos like this, check out this playlist.