TL;DR: A useful read for the inquirer. Just as good as the summary for the practitioner.

I finally got to read The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. This is years after I read the CapitolReader summary of the book, which is one of many summaries of this book. I became excited with the idea presented in the book by just reading the summary. The main idea is that the simple mechanism of checklists can be used to improve performance, and safety, in many areas from surgery to construction. Checklists are a useful mechanism to guarantee that known wisdom is put to use when needed, even at times of stress and cognitive overflow. After all, the challenge is often not the know-how we don’t have but the vast amount of know-how we do have but fail to use when needed.

After reading the summary I became an advocate of checklists. I use them wherever I can. I even wrote my own software that generates different instances from master checklists for different uses, some as simple as travel packing and preparations.

The book by Atul Gawande is interesting and well-written. Slightly to my disappointment, however, reading the book does not add much on the pragmatic creation and use of checklists. It mostly covers the experiences and evidence of the uses of checklists in different areas, as well as research into their usefulness. It is an educating read on the study of the merits of checklists, but perhaps less of a guide for checklists practitioners.