Turn the Ship Around!
Turn the Ship Around! by L. David Marquetby L. David Marquet
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 12 management books by recommenders
Recommended for its practical ideas on leading skilled teams, giving workers trust and accountability, and changing organizations in place.
Recommended for its practical ideas on leading skilled teams, giving workers trust and accountability, and changing organizations in place.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Strong leadership book for skilled teams
“it's a really interesting take on leading highly intelligent, skilled teams”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Shift from a Leader-Follower to a Leader-Leader Approach” “A really good book on this is "Turn the ship around".”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “Things I've learned in my 10 years as an engineering manager” “the only good book on leadership I've managed to find”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “CEO fired developers to make room for AI. Developers create open source AI CEO” Praised as fantastic and interesting
“"Turn the Ship Around" is fantastic. It's a short audio book (about 6.5 hours), if that's more up your alley.”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Shift from a Leader-Follower to a Leader-Leader Approach” “Read the book. Then if you want go check the sources.”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Shift from a Leader-Follower to a Leader-Leader Approach” “I appreciate that book and that context”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “Things I've learned in my 10 years as an engineering manager” - Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “CEO fired developers to make room for AI. Developers create open source AI CEO”
Practical ideas for changing organizations
“Turn the Ship Around [1] is also great at giving examples of how to "change organizations in place".”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Advent of Sysadmin 2025” “One of my favourite techniques from that book is to remove the centralised backlog.”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Poor Deming never stood a chance”
Other management books people recommend
The four most recommended other management books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Unaccountability Machineby Dan Davies | 11 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Turn the Ship Around!by L. David MarquetThis page | 10 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Shape Upby Ryan Singer | 6 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Team Topologiesby Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais | 5 | 3 | 63% | 4 | — | — |
| Peoplewareby Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister | 5 | 2 | 71% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it is actually extremely interesting”
“the only good book on leadership I've managed to find”
“it's a really interesting take on leading highly intelligent, skilled teams”
“"Turn the Ship Around" is fantastic. It's a short audio book (about 6.5 hours), if that's more up your alley.”
“Read the book. Then if you want go check the sources.”
“One of my favourite techniques from that book is to remove the centralised backlog.”
“It does very much emphasize giving trust, responsibility and accountability to workers”
“I appreciate that book and that context”
“A really good book on this is "Turn the ship around".”
“Your second recommendation is also appropriate”
“Turn the Ship Around [1] is also great at giving examples of how to "change organizations in place".”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.