Books, writers, and ideas that shaped my thinking on intentional smallness.
These aren't recommendations in the "you should read this" sense. They're the books that broke something open for me — that made me rethink growth, work, and what a good business actually looks like.
The book I wish I'd read before I started my first company. Millerd left a strategy consulting career and spent years figuring out what work looks like when you stop following the default path. Philosophical, honest, and entirely devoid of hustle culture nonsense.
The business case for staying small. Jarvis asks the question nobody in business asks: what if you didn't grow? What if you questioned growth as the default, and instead optimized for a business you actually wanted to run?
The structural argument for owned infrastructure. Topp breaks down why building on rented platforms is a trap, and how authors and experts can build businesses they actually own. This book was the diagnosis I'd been looking for.
The case for focused, intentional work in a world that rewards shallow output. Newport's framework for protecting deep concentration time is essential reading for anyone who does creative or knowledge work.
Newport's follow-up to Deep Work, making the case that doing fewer things, at a natural pace, with obsessive quality, is how meaningful work actually gets done. The antithesis of hustle culture.
People whose thinking on work, business, and craft I return to regularly.
Writes about "good work" — the kind that fits your life instead of consuming it. His Substack and books are required reading for anyone questioning the default path.
Built a $15M solo business without employees. Whether you agree with everything or not, his commitment to staying one-person is a proof point for intentional smallness at scale.
Writes about the author economy and owned infrastructure. If you're building anything on someone else's platform, start here.
Ideas I keep coming back to. Not frameworks — just perspectives that reframe things.
The philosophy at the center of everything I write. The most ambitious thing a business owner can do is stay small on purpose. One thing, done well, for one type of person, at the highest level you can deliver.
Removing a bad client is more valuable than acquiring a good one. Cutting an offer is more profitable than adding one. The best business decisions are usually subtractions.
The watchmaker doesn't need more customers. The tailor doesn't need a franchise. The financial planner who limits his clients isn't thinking too small — he's thinking clearly.
On intentional smallness, craft, and building a business worth having.