Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Simple Genius of Checklists

blog.nuclino.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 89 posts

Re: The Simple Genius of Checklists

#31

Post by crispyambulance »

blunte wrote: post #29

But where does one begin to identify the parts of life where a checklist would reduce cognitive load? In IT, some cases are obvious (such as deploying new releases). However, if a process is so repeatable that you could have an accurate checklist, then you could probably automate the process and eliminate the need for the checklist. I would love to know what parts of my life I could relegate to checklists so I could…

In critical situations where the a bad outcome is really, really negative, checklists are fine.

I've seen checklists abused, however, in project management. Where some folks are apt to generate a "one-size-fits-all" checklist for every project large or small. It ends up becoming boilerplate, and worse, people take their tasks less seriously if trivial, nebulous or non-applicable stuff is grouped onto the same footing as things which take hard work. Everything ends up being a checklist item with check-box and a date on it.

Re: The Simple Genius of Checklists

#32

Post by jowdones »

I'm probably the smartest guy in Romania and can tell you I got my certification that I can do 99% by making sure my usual cognitive load stays at 1%.

I was also poor, which means there was no way to enforce my internal policy which means today, 20 years later, I'm using 99% of my brain power to solve issues a simple state/high-powered enforcement checklist would do.

At my 90%+ I still dreamed of a better future. Now I only wish my own death. Tomorrow I hope and make sure you all die.

Re: The Simple Genius of Checklists

#33

Post by snarf21 »

RedNifre wrote: post #23

Can anybody recommend a good checklist app for Android? When I search for "checklist" I only find ToDo-List apps that call themselves "checklist" app. What I'd like is something where you can set a per-checklist timeout after which the list resets everything to unchecked and maybe allow two different ways to view each checklist (or modes): 1. All at once with little check marks that you can check in any order 2. Stri…

What is the timeout that resets the list use case? I'm generally curious.

Re: The Simple Genius of Checklists

#34

Post by ls612 »

ncmncm wrote: post #8
euler_angles wrote: post #6

I have been a flight test and rocket test engineer. Checklists were life, especially in the rocket world. The fantastic thing about checklists is that they both keep you accountable and free your mental resources so that when something happens that one of your checklists don't cover, you know you've at least tried all the sane/expected things. I personally found that backstop freeing and allowed me to use my creativi…

It took three generations of flight training for checklists to become an essential part of aviation. Note that a flight-training generation is less than a human reproductive generation; it's the time from first lesson taken to first lesson taught (plus some). It had to wait for the older instructors to retire. We are still in transition, in medicine. Many physicians have not yet cottoned to hand-washing, yet.

I don’t know about that last part. My dad is a fairly old physician and the way he tells it hand washing has been mandated by the feds for decades and the last cohort of old docs who refused to change in that respect retired circa 1990. But the culture may be different in other parts of the US or world.

Re: The Simple Genius of Checklists

#35

Post by digikazi »

subhro wrote: post #22
efa wrote: post #16

I really enjoyed http://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manifesto/ . Very interesting and at times frustrating. You ask yourself why more hospitals can't implement success described in this book.

Very good book. This book came to my mind the moment I saw this post.

Atul Gawande is brilliant! He also gave a series of wonderful lectures for the BBC in 2014. They're still avaliable online if interested.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00729d9/episodes/player?pa...

EDIT: I pressed "update" with my sausage fingers before I wrote anything coherent.

Re: The Simple Genius of Checklists

#36

Post by OedipusRex »

Waterluvian wrote: post #26
RedNifre wrote: post #23

Can anybody recommend a good checklist app for Android? When I search for "checklist" I only find ToDo-List apps that call themselves "checklist" app. What I'd like is something where you can set a per-checklist timeout after which the list resets everything to unchecked and maybe allow two different ways to view each checklist (or modes): 1. All at once with little check marks that you can check in any order 2. Stri…

This sounds like a fun afternoon project for a web or mobile dev. If nobody replies with a quality app that does this, I'm going to make it for myself and share it here.

This is my weekend project this week, ha. I'm reading Checklist Manifesto and decided there wasn't any good app for it. I'll post back here when it's done.

Re: The Simple Genius of Checklists

#37

Post by sails »

RedNifre wrote: post #23

Can anybody recommend a good checklist app for Android? When I search for "checklist" I only find ToDo-List apps that call themselves "checklist" app. What I'd like is something where you can set a per-checklist timeout after which the list resets everything to unchecked and maybe allow two different ways to view each checklist (or modes): 1. All at once with little check marks that you can check in any order 2. Stri…

Far from what you require, but OurGroceries is pretty flexible and could meet requirement 1 quite easily. I use it for my travelling checklist every time I go on weekends away (as well as for shopping) https://www.ourgroceries.com/overview

Re: The Simple Genius of Checklists

#38

Post by [deleted] »

jowdones wrote: post #32

I'm probably the smartest guy in Romania and can tell you I got my certification that I can do 99% by making sure my usual cognitive load stays at 1%. I was also poor, which means there was no way to enforce my internal policy which means today, 20 years later, I'm using 99% of my brain power to solve issues a simple state/high-powered enforcement checklist would do. At my 90%+ I still dreamed of a better future. Now…

[deleted]

Re: The Simple Genius of Checklists

#39

Post by mschnell »

ukj wrote: post #18
epalm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what you actually hate are "bad checklists".

Do you have a good checklist for writing good checklists?

The Gawande book (Checklist Manifesto) contains one. A few points from my notes:

- distinguish Read-Do- - Pause-Points - Read-Do vs. Do-Confirm - 5--9 items - Only killer items - No clutter and unnecessary colors - Wording simple and exact - Use language of the profession - Fit on one page - Has to be tested in the real world - Also don’t forget Communication checks

Re: The Simple Genius of Checklists

#40

Post by mopsi »

rb808 wrote: post #12

I hate checklists. I've just done an information security checklist at work, 200 questions, lots of them irrelevant, many are very vague, often require evidence that is time consuming to put together. Next week I have a release that I have to put a change ticket in for - another 50 boxes with questions and combos. I'm ready to quit. Don't let checklists turn your company into a bureaucratic hell hole.

Checklists used in aviation do not have questions or anything else that needs much thinking. They are lists of bullet points for tasks that need to be done in a particular order without missing any steps, eg: IGNITION - OFF, FUEL LEVER - CUTOFF, BRAKES - SET, BATTERY - OFF.
Post reply on HN