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Comment by ysr23 | Hacker News Reader

I've also read it, for anyone thinking about buying it, i think it can be completely summarised by:

'checklists are very very good. You should really use checklists'

Now if you require further info on why they are good, by all means read the book, i just found it was a blog-post, if not a tweet, expanded to a book, YMMV.

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That's exactly what it was. Atul Gawande wrote a column in the New Yorker [0] and was presumably offered a deal to expand it into a book.

[0] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/12/10/the-checklist

> 'checklists are very very good. You should really use checklists'

If you stop at that you miss a big part of the book where he describes that not all checklists are equal, what makes checklists useful (i.e. you should not state the obvious in a checklist and he goes at length to explain why), and how you spread the usage of checklists in an organization. That's a lot more important than "checklists are very very good".

Plus the whole spiel about CRM (crew resource management), eg that the entire team should introduce themselves, that the nurse is as entitled to speak up and ask questions as the Prof. Dr. surgeon MD Esq., etc. etc.

That's the basic gist of all productivity and business how to/advice books. They're all a fairly simple set of ideas with 100 examples and testimonial style stories about just how revolutionary it is or how much it changed executive XYZ's life.

I think that you're right, yet the book may still be valuable. I have, for a while, read summaries of business (and other) books by getabstract.com. These cover the main points of the book, but what happens is that you read it, it all makes sense, and a day later you've completely forgotten of it.

The book, on the other hand, yes, expounds on the very same points again and again, with different examples, under different circumstances, highlighting different aspects, and then, having had the same message hammered home so many times, there's a faint chance that a month later you remember some of it.

(Great books change the way you view things forever, but that happens rarely, and never with business books, I'd say :-)

Yeah I'm not really saying it's useless just that it's the basic format of those books. I think the best way to read those is to skim the various testimonials to get an idea what they're talking about and get to the author's point then read them as they spark your interest or seem relevant.

I get why they're in there, it's one of the few ways to argue the actual effectiveness of whatever advice the author is giving. It just seems excessive sometimes how much of the books are just 'I swear this works look at these important people it worked for.'

Yes, and that's a feature. Human brains are swayed by narrative, not by rote facts. If you want to get a positive change implemented, you need to tell a story.

> I've also read it, for anyone thinking about buying it,

Or perhaps see if your local library has it.

I've reduced my book purchases, and generally only consider buying something nowadays if I still enjoy it after the second/third reading (from the library).

Buying a book before reading it is almost always a bad decision, even if it has rave reviews. And even if you love the book, owning it serves no practical purpose unless you constantly re-read it.

The only good thing is that they serve as visual reminders of the books that you've read; otherwise it's easy to forget the titles and authors.

> owning it serves no practical purpose unless you constantly re-read it.

I disagree. I write a lot on the margins of the books I own - notes, personal observations, questions, criticism. I highlight interesting passages. It helps me understand the book deeper and retain its ideas.

Note that rereading a book doesn't have to mean cover to cover. If you look things up in the book once in a while you should have it.

It doesn't need to be you who reads the book either, it could by your personal library and you lend it to friends interested in the same subject. Public libraries will get rid of unpopular books so having a personal library of obscure subjects you care about is useful. (The internet does not have everything)

> The only good thing is that they serve as visual reminders of the books that you've read; otherwise it's easy to forget the titles and authors.

It's possible to create an account on Good Reads or Library Thing to keep track. There's Delicious Library as well (for Mac?).

One additional thing I got out of it that wasn't totally obvious to me beforehand about checklists is that they work better if they don't attempt to be exhaustive. Focus on the major items that should be "checked".

I kindof agree, but he also had other interesting nuggets such as having all the medical staff introduce themselves and why they are there in the surgery room before any cutting begins.

It's interesting to think how often dumb errors can be caught just by making sure everyone in the room is there for the same surgery (i.e., repairing a joint, not cutting off a limb). Correcting that confusion before cutting makes me feel better.

The only addition I would have to that summary is:

"And yet, most people think checklists are beneath them. They are insulted that someone with as much experience as they currently have would require a checklist."

Here is a Hidden Brain episode on it: https://www.npr.org/2017/10/30/559996276/the-trick-to-surviv...

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