"Man is fallible, but maybe men are less so."
-The Checklist Manifesto

It is such a simple idea, and yet so hard to follow. When your work is complicated, involves serious teamwork, needs to be done in a time critical manner, is prone to errors of oversight; make a checklist. Follow it diligently, and upgrade it frequently. The purpose of a checklist is not to replace human thought, but to take care of the trivialities so that the mind can focus on more important things.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to build an enormous building? The layers of sophistication and the myriad of skills required? I hadn’t. How do pilots handle all the complex situations that arise in almost every flight? How did the astronauts aboard an Apollo go to the moon and back using a computer only as powerful as a calculator?

In this very thoughtfully written book Gawande posits that it is almost universally accepted across all learned occupations that a professional is expected to be selfless, skilled and trust-worthy. A fourth quality that is often overlooked and sometimes even looked down upon is being disciplined. But one only has to look at the successful people today; scientists, engineers, artists, writers, businessmen, politicians, and look at how they structure their lives. Traditionally discipline is associated with a narrowness of thought, and our heroes are the ones who use their instinct to solve the world’s problems, but perhaps we need to upgrade our romantic notions.

The book is as much about the philosophy and usefulness of checklists as it is about the reluctance of doctors and other professionals to adopt them. There is something in human nature or something in our culture that resists change and prevents us from looking critically at our own work and lives. And even though it is as banal a platitude as can be, even in this golden age of data, learning from past mistakes is still one of the hardest things to do.

I love simple solutions to complex problems, and for me, this book was an insightful read. I wonder if the lessons learned from this can be applied to my profession. What exactly is it that math educators and researchers are getting wrong (plenty) and how should we better discipline ourselves to effect an improvement? Perhaps a teaching checklist is long overdue.