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Book review: The Checklist Manifesto

lesswrong.com

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Re: Book review: The Checklist Manifesto

#11

Post by larrywright »

hellisothers wrote: post #10
larrywright wrote: post #4

I liked this book, but it’s a prime example of an article or blog post that gets turned into a book by adding a bunch of things that don’t really provide more useful information, but seem to serve as filler to make it book-length. I read the book, and I read the article that the book was based on. I don’t recall learning anything from the book that I hadn’t already learned from the article.

Agreed, I always wondered how those “Top 100 business books summarized!” books fit all that “content” into one book, then I read Checklist Manifesto…

It’s certainly not the only book I’ve read like that in the last few years. It’s maddening - I value conciseness in a book, not length.

Re: Book review: The Checklist Manifesto

#12

Post by [deleted] »

fluidcruft wrote: post #8
larrywright wrote: post #4

I liked this book, but it’s a prime example of an article or blog post that gets turned into a book by adding a bunch of things that don’t really provide more useful information, but seem to serve as filler to make it book-length. I read the book, and I read the article that the book was based on. I don’t recall learning anything from the book that I hadn’t already learned from the article.

What article was the book based on?

[deleted]

Re: Book review: The Checklist Manifesto

#13

Post by mikestew »

throwaway192874 wrote: post #5

Legitimate question, is there enough interesting information in this book worth reading if you already agree with the premise, that in complex situations checklists can be good? I've known about it for awhile and this review does a good job at providing a real-world example of where it's useful, so other than ideas of how to make good checklists I'm not sure if actually reading it is something I should do

If you have the means to "waste" money on the price of the book, I'd recommend it. But by "waste", I mean that the book could have been a thick pamphlet, but publishers sell books and not pamphlets, so by golly that essay is going to get the shit fluffed out of it until it is book-length. So you're paying for a lot of marshmallow cream.

That said, the premise is good and you might glean some good practices that you'll put to use. It's just that it's not worth the $15, IMO. If you have disposable income, buy it. Otherwise, just go read the New Yorker article referenced elsewhere in this thread.

Re: Book review: The Checklist Manifesto

#14

Post by gordon_freeman »

vincentmarle wrote: post #2

> Making a good human-usable checklist takes a lot of workshopping. Airlines are still constantly revising their 200-page manual of individually optimized checklists for every possible emergency, as plane designs change and new safety data rolls in. When I first read the book a couple years ago, and introduced checklists into my team, I found that there was no great tool to manage and create checklists and share it w…

Evernote has recently introduced checklists/tasks feature which is kind of nice though I have not tried sharing them.

Re: Book review: The Checklist Manifesto

#15

Post by mikestew »

larrywright wrote: post #4

I liked this book, but it’s a prime example of an article or blog post that gets turned into a book by adding a bunch of things that don’t really provide more useful information, but seem to serve as filler to make it book-length. I read the book, and I read the article that the book was based on. I don’t recall learning anything from the book that I hadn’t already learned from the article.

Welcome to the genre of self-help books. I can't recall the last one I read that couldn't have just as easily been a long essay. "Here's a few good points and ideas, surrounded by a fuck-ton of anecdotes and proverbs, because you're not going to pay $20 for a magazine article."

Re: Book review: The Checklist Manifesto

#16

Post by kmt-lnh »

Gawande mentions the checklist libraries of different manufacturers. I've checked the references (and parts of the citation graph) but didn't find anything about them. The closest were NASA's standards about the typography and structure of flight deck checklist. Does anybody know about how are checklists managed in the real word? How are they stored, retrieved and most importantly updated, when something changes? Not theoretically. from first principles, but like, at the manufacturer?

Re: Book review: The Checklist Manifesto

#19

Post by paxys »

larrywright wrote: post #4

I liked this book, but it’s a prime example of an article or blog post that gets turned into a book by adding a bunch of things that don’t really provide more useful information, but seem to serve as filler to make it book-length. I read the book, and I read the article that the book was based on. I don’t recall learning anything from the book that I hadn’t already learned from the article.

Why is that a negative? If a book has interesting, engaging content why is it bad that it has 200 pages instead of 20?

Re: Book review: The Checklist Manifesto

#20

Post by paxys »

ch4s3 wrote: post #7
throwaway192874 wrote: post #5

Legitimate question, is there enough interesting information in this book worth reading if you already agree with the premise, that in complex situations checklists can be good? I've known about it for awhile and this review does a good job at providing a real-world example of where it's useful, so other than ideas of how to make good checklists I'm not sure if actually reading it is something I should do

I skimmed it years ago, it could really just be a long essay.

Fun fact, it was a long essay which turned into a book – https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/12/10/the-checklist (https://outline.com/8JS8h6)
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