HackerTube.dev

MindSpring Presents: "Greatness" by David Marquet

MindSpring · 2.7M views · 2013-10-08 · 9:41

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

An animated adaptation of Captain David Marquet's talk on greatness, based on his book Turn the Ship Around!. It argues for pushing decision-making down to the people doing the work instead of controlling everything from the top.

On Hacker News

HN commenters cite it as a compact illustration of empowered, decentralized leadership, for founders and for managers who try to control everything.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2017–2019

Topics

Search by tags

What people said

hnrodey · 2017-12 · Recommendation

> managers aren't able to keep up and so might find themselves in a position where when they first started managing they were an expert.... Reminds me of this. The value is in the audio but the animation is entertaining. [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗
endlessvoid94 · 2017-05 · Recommendation

How big is the company? You're right to identify this as a hard problem. I've been in your exact shoes before. 100+ person company, the weight is heavy. The good news is that it's totally possible to get out without wrecking the company's outlook. But it does take a minor amount of time investment. Perhaps it's possible to view it as a new challenge: how to quickly hire or find someone within your org who is capable of taking over your day-to-day responsibilities? Who do people ask for decisions / advice when you're out sick? Frame it as a promotion for them. Give them a (small) comp bump and a new set of responsibilities that include most (or all) of your existing responsibilities. Coach them for a quarter, give them enough rope to hang themselves with, give them radically candid feedback, and then you can step away. (Or even go do something else interesting at the company!) I can go into a lot more detail if you'd like -- please email me. The username in my profile (not my HN handle) at gmail. Good luck, positive vibes! P.S. Watch this: [VIDEO] as a jumpstart to getting your org ready for life without you

Read the original HN comment ↗
ConfusedDog · 2019-06 · Reference

I entirely agree with you. This is the same idea in the Greatness video by David Marquet ( [VIDEO] ) Try to control everything is just futile. I think hiring and retaining best people is the best countermeasure to this sort of things.

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by MindSpring, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources