Notes on Small Tools

posted by michael / 22 july 2026

A short note on why small, personal software tools are worth building even when they never become products.

Small tools are useful because they remove one repeated annoyance from the day. The best ones are usually too specific to become a startup and too personal to justify a roadmap.

what counts as small

For my purposes, a small tool usually has a few constraints:

• it does one job
• it can be explained in one sentence
• it has boring storage
• it survives being ignored for a month

If the tool needs a launch plan, it is probably not small anymore.

That is exactly why they are worth building. A tiny utility can fit the way you already work instead of asking you to reshape your habits around someone else’s defaults.

problem -> tiny interface -> saved time

The nice part is that the maintenance cost can stay low. If the tool solves one problem clearly, it does not need to grow into a platform.

rough checklist

1. Name the repeated annoyance.
2. Build the least dramatic version.
3. Use it for a week.
4. Delete anything that does not earn its place.

For a good example of the mindset, the Unix philosophy still holds up.