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LM: #368: The cottage test

May 18 2026 – 10:00am

The first version of the idea that comes to us is the last version we would ever be capable of building.

In The Heart to Start, I called this The Fortress Fallacy. We immediately think of a fortress, despite the fact we don’t even have experience building a cottage.

Dreaming big is good, except when it presents a vision so intimidating you do nothing at all.

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I keep a spreadsheet of ideas I’m considering building, and I’ve found a powerful way of evaluating those ideas is what I call the Fortress/Cottage Test.

Two columns are dedicated to different versions of the idea. In the first column, I briefly describe the advanced version of the idea. (This is almost always the form in which the idea first comes to me.) That’s the fortress.

In the second column, I describe the most basic version of the idea I can think of. That’s the cottage.

So your columns might look like this:

🏰 A seven-book fantasy series, set in an underwater world.
🏠 A 2,000-word fantasy short story, set in an underwater world.

🏰 An app that keeps various list components you can mix and match to build packing lists for trips.
🏠 A text file with various copy-and-pasteable components I can mix and match to build packing lists for my trips.

🏰 A YouTube channel featuring tours and reviews of restaurants in Chicago.
🏠 A reel featuring a tour and review of my friend’s restaurant, in Chicago.

I find that thinking of the cottage leads me down a trail of just enough cognitive effort to get me going.

If I stop at the fortress, I’m just looking at the peak of one mountain from the peak of another. Thinking of the cottage takes a little effort, but then concrete and achievable steps stretch out in front of me.

Book: A Night to Remember (Amazon) is a detailed account of the sinking of the Titanic.

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