diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7f462ae..c6c4293 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -12,8 +12,10 @@ This is my first serious zig effort, so please issue a PR if the code isn't
 
 This is designed to be built statically using the `aws_c_*` libraries, so
 we inherit a lot of the goodness of the work going on there. Current
-executable size is 10.3M, about half of which is due to the SSL library.
-This is for x86_linux (which is all that's tested at the moment).
+executable size is 9.7M, about half of which is due to the SSL library.
+Running strip on the executable after compilation (it seems zig strip
+only goes so far), reduces this to 4.3M. This is for x86_linux,
+(which is all that's tested at the moment).
 
 ## Building
 
diff --git a/build.zig b/build.zig
index 916989e..a634b23 100644
--- a/build.zig
+++ b/build.zig
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ pub fn build(b: *Builder) !void {
     exe.linkage = .static;
 
     const is_strip = b.option(bool, "strip", "strip exe") orelse true;
-    exe.strip = !is_strip;
+    exe.strip = is_strip;
 
     const run_cmd = exe.run();
     run_cmd.step.dependOn(b.getInstallStep());