#Things to consider
- Checklists are powerful. I’ve set up a few personal checklists of my own lately to help me be more systematic. I have a checklist I go through before leaving my home when going on a vacation for instance. It alleviates my mind from all the things I have to do before I leave. Close all windows, water the plants, turn off alarms, turn off computers etc. I reference to the list, go through it and be done with it.
- It is not clear how we could produce substantially more expertise than we already have. Yet our failures remain frequent. They persist despite remarkable individual ability.
- Four generations after the first aviation checklists went into use, a lesson is emerging: checklists seem able to defend anyone, even the experienced, against failure in many more tasks than we realized.
- I realized the question had two components. First, how could they be sure that they had the right knowledge in hand? Second, how could they be sure that they were applying this knowledge correctly?
#Reading log
2017-01-22: Atul Gawande makes the case for how simple checklists can improve our lives. We reach a certain level where it’s not our lack of knowledge that sets us up for failure. It’s rather the human fallibility. Things will be forgotten, no matter how trivial they may seem. He describes how he wanted to make his hospital, where he works as a doctor, safer and more protected against errors. He looked to the engineering industry and the aviation business. He found that that they both use checklists to avoid simple, human mistakes.
2017-01-20: I’ve set a personal goal to read 4 books on productivity this year. The Checklist Manifesto is the first one out. This book grabbed my attention after hearing it mentioned in a podcast I listen to, Canvas. Then it was referenced again in an article I read so I put it on my reading list.