ICM as LEGO · Clief Notes

ICM as LEGO

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?

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ICM as LEGO