Someone posted a few days back that they were still confused about ICM — like, actually confused, not "give me the elevator pitch" confused. Got me thinking. That's what got this made. There are many resources here, though I would ensure one also went through and built a "folder structure" like Jake shows in Foundation 2. Once you build, it can support you along your learning and building process. This short video was inspired after I had an epiphany about playing with LEGOs as a child. Not because ICM needs a gimmick. When something isn't clicking, changing how you're looking at it usually does more than saying the same explanation louder. The video's really trying to land one thing: think about it in pieces, not all at once. Two central ideas specifically, before anything else matters. One stage, one job. A folder should do exactly one thing. Plain text as the interface. Everything's just files. Open any of it in a plain text editor and you understand exactly what's going on. That's not an accident. It means you're never stuck if a tool changes, and it means anyone — you, a teammate, an AI — can pick it up without needing the same software you used to build it. Those two concepts, more than the rest, are the ones worth sitting with before anything else clicks. If you want the fuller version of how I simplified it — what the actual folder structure looks like, worked through with a real example — there's an article that goes further than the video does. Article: https://thequietai.com/writing/icm-as-lego What part of ICM is still fuzzy for you?

Step by step on Windows, starting from a clean system: install Claude Code, set it up, install and open VS Code, install the extension, and get it actually talking to your project. Nothing assumed, nothing skipped. Language note: the video is in Italian, but YouTube's auto-dub in English is surprisingly good, plus English subtitles on top. Switch the audio language in settings and follow along, no Italian needed. Why I'm sharing it here specifically: this setup, Claude Code inside VS Code, is in my opinion one of the cleanest and most efficient ways to actually work inside ICM workspaces. Folder as context, editor as the surface, agent reading the structure directly. Stay curious 🫡

EDIT: WE HAD OVER 100 PEOPLE SIGN UP IN TEN MINUTES....GOING TO BE ROLLING OUT ACCESS ON SLOWER BASIS NOW SO I DONT RUIN MY BANK ACCOUNT WITH TOKEN SPEND FOR YALL (im covering ai costs for everyone) but keep applying we are keeping track and will be letting more people in and reaching out about getting you all access one by one especially VIP. Our Platform is here, the thing a lot of you have been asking for and I have been teasing Take your ICM folders and second brains, put them in the cloud, and work on them together in real time. You upload your folders and files. One strong model with a good harness reads the map and becomes the agent you need. No new agents to build, no zip files to pass around. Each workspace runs in its own container. It renders your markdown, edits your files, installs packages, runs Python and Playwright, and multiple people can work in the same space at once. No Mac Mini needed to keep your data separate either. We're opening it to VIP and alpha testers first, and I'm covering the AI cost while we test so cant do a full role out yet. Free AI use which is great for those users, not great for my bank account haha. ✍️ Sign up for access: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdSnToxclxt8EgoB2GizrEvHP7gzOedVcRXdCkpi1SZwR8ZfA/viewform 🔗 Questions, or want to work heavier with this? Email [email protected]

"The person who can direct AI is more valuable than the person who simply uses it" - Nate B. Jones Nate is truly one of the great minds in the AI space well worth a follow on YouTube or substack. - https://substack.com/@natesnewsletter - https://youtube.com/@natebjones

I was struggling to use ICM into my workflow of web design becuase I didn't have one (I was new in this field). After the help of @David Vogel who told me to first discover the workflow by first learning the domain knowledge, what a website is and how it works then I got the idea of what the workflow might look like. So the key that can help others in similar situation as mine. The ICM is powerful and the AI can help you only if you have the domain knowledge by which I means the language, the workflow, how the process works. If you are thinking how can I build a website, a lead gen system, SEO or anything using ICM and AI then you have to learn about the space a little bit first and understand the workflow, the ins and outs. You don't have to become the specialist and don't years in the space. Just learn from the podcasts, the conversations and even use AI tools notebooklm to point it into the youtube videos and the material that is explaining everything about that process. Then interrogate it, learn from it and apply it in your project. Don't spend months learning. Learn and then build.