It seems from the comments that some people tend to understand this advice as praising of the reductionist approach to problem solving, which is only one of the

It seems from the comments that some people tend to understand this advice as praising of the reductionist approach to problem solving, which is only one of the many methods of 'building' or 'engineering'. But I think the article talks about how intentional staying away from 'thinking big' doesn't prevent your product from becoming big - eventually, which is a different thing. Article doesn't try to explain why that is the case, actually, and reads more like a statement of an important fact with some prominent examples. And we know that there are examples to everything. Also, it is easy to mistake 'starting small and growing big overtime' for 'starting small and staying small, but having a great impact on whatever side of life/business we choose' - kind of what folks from 37signals do (an example, yes). That said, I think this is a very good advise: applied right and regularly, it helps you escape the procrastination period (uncertainty of 'big' may be too strong to overcome), skip needless research and preparations, avoid paralysis by analysis and other friends of 'thinking big'. The next logical step is reducing 'start something small' to just 'start something'.