Motivated by a new conjecture on the behavior of bricks, we start a systematic study of minimal $\tau $ -tilting infinite (min- $\tau $ -infinite, for short) algebras. In particular, we treat min- $\tau $ -infinite algebras as a modern counterpart of minimal representation-infinite algebras and show some of the fundamental similarities and differences between these families. We then relate our studies to the classical tilting theory and observe that this modern approach can provide fresh impetus to the study of some old problems. We further show that in order to verify the conjecture, it is sufficient to treat those min- $\tau $ -infinite algebras where almost all bricks are faithful. Finally, we also prove that minimal extending bricks have open orbits, and consequently obtain a simple proof of the brick analogue of the first Brauer–Thrall conjecture, recently shown by Schroll and Treffinger using some different techniques.