The Checklist Manifesto

Gawande’s point is that most failures in complicated work aren’t ignorance any more, they’re ineptitude; we know the right thing and don’t do it, because there’s far too much to hold in one head at once. Aviation worked this out in 1935 after a prototype bomber crashed on takeoff with the best pilot in the air force at the controls. Surgery took rather longer to come round to it. He walks through building a checklist properly, which turns out to have real rules, short, five to nine items, actual pause points, and he’s honest about the surgeons who found the entire idea insulting. The Van Halen brown M&Ms story is in here and it is not the throwaway you’d expect. A very short book about a very boring idea that demonstrably stops people dying.

I wanted so badly to hate this book, it’s an offensive concept. That’s exactly why it’s worth reading.