Thinking Big by Thinking Small

Thinking Big by Thinking Small

The Cart Test™

A stupid-sounding heuristic for whether you’ve built a real place. We can think big by thinking cart instead of car.

Jeffery Tompkins's avatar
Jeffery Tompkins
May 20, 2026
∙ Paid

The first time you watch a teenager drive a golf cart to high school in Peachtree City, Georgia, your brain has to do some work. You are looking at something that should be a punchline elsewhere: a leisure vehicle on a public road, an adolescent at the wheel of a contraption engineered to ferry sunburnt retirees between fairways. But, if you keep watchi…

User's avatar

Continue reading this post for free, courtesy of Jeffery Tompkins.

Or purchase a paid subscription.
© 2026 Jeffery Tompkins · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture