Book Notes – The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (Chapters 6-9)

Chapter 6: In the Lie Factory Rome had powerful families Poggio wanted to be apostolic scriptor Pope ruled many spiritually but had unstable physical kingdom Lots of cases in the papal court (the Roman Curia) He didn’t want to join the Church for fear of moral bankruptcy Roman Curia was perilous Lapo’s On the Excellence […]

Book Notes – The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (Chapters 1 – 5)

Notes for the book The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt. Preface Greenblatt picked up Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things in a college book sale. He was struck by the ideas it espoused, including ideas on how to handle death. He had been fearful of death through his mother, who used […]

Pygmalion Book Notes

Loved the dialect (I enjoy when dialect is used in books in general) looking up the Pygmalion myth and discovering the archetype for She’s All That realizing this is probably the source of the Eliza chat bot’s name Liked Higgins’ misanthropy Hated how Eliza didn’t wind up with Higgins in the end–at first, and then […]

Summary: The Checklist Manifesto–Chapter 9: The Save

Even after all this research Gawande still doesn’t instill all his faith into the checklist as a tool for surgeons. Then, in the spring of 2007, he has a close call with a patient, who experiences complications. Thanks to the checklist, they have a supply of blood ready that is able to keep the patient […]

Summary: The Checklist Manifesto–Chapter 8: The Hero in the Age of Checklists

Even though checklists seem like a simple, effective solution to the problem of mistakes in procedure, there are behavioral problems to surmount in adoption. Institutions seem more willing to pay for multimillion dollar surgical robots with limited cost-benefit than try to imprlmeent checklists. Doctors are reluctant to accept them, and see the true spirit of […]

Summary: The Checklist Manifesto–Chapter 7: The Test

With tips from the flight checklist experts, Gawande attempts to revise the WHO checklist. Going through a test run of the checklist helped to weed out problems such as who was supposed to run through the checklist. The biggest issue was that there was too many items. They tried to reconcile items important in one […]

Summary: The Checklist Manifesto–Chapter 6: The Checklist Factory

After the failure of the initial checklist, Gawande researches flight checklists and how they are made. He contacts Daniel Boorman, a checklist developer for Boeing. Daniel explains how flight checklists are divided into normal and non-normal lists, and runs through one of the non-normal checklists with Gawande in a flight simulator. This “DOOR FWD CARGO” […]

Summary: The Checklist Manifesto – Chapter 5: The First Try

Gawande is enlisted by the WHO to participate in a committee to improve patient outcomes in developing countries. Part of the problem is that the volume of surery has increased. A group of specialists met at Geneva in 2007 to discuss possible options. The problem was how to make an impact in disparate environments and […]

Summary: The Checklist Manifesto–Chapter 4: The Idea

The building industry delegates power to resolve complex situations. This is important when there are problems that are difficult to plan for. Gawande says, “In response to risk, most authorities tend to centralize power and decision making.” This typical response was disatrous for New Orleans when Katrina hit. State and Federal officials refused to cede […]

Summary: The Checklist Manifesto – Chapter 3 The Checklist

Complicated problems can be broken down into simple ones, with simple steps to follow but there are always unexpected issues that can arise. How are buildings constructed? There are many specialized individuals performing discrete tasks, yet you rarely hear of a building falling down. Gawande visits Joe Salvia, part of the construction firm McNamara/Salvia. Salvia […]

Summary: The Checklist Manifesto–Chapter 2 The Checklist

The B-17 was the most sophisticated, but complicated, airplane of its time. Boeing lost a government contract to Douglas due to its complexity. To make it flyable, they created a pilot’s checklist. Pilots had never needed them before, but they helped to fly increasingly complex machines. In every hospital, four vital signs are checked constantly: […]

Summary: The Checklist Manifesto–Chapter 1 The Problem of Extreme Complexity

A Swiss rural hospital in Klagenfurt manages to save a girl who drowned in icy water via a complex series of coordinated actions involving the dispatchers, EMTs, nurses, and doctors. Medicine has been getting increasingly complicated with many different specialties, and specialties within specialties. In addition, doctors see patients having many different maladies, prescribing many […]

Summary: The Checklist Manifesto – Introduction

Gawande’s friend tells him about a patient that came in with a stab wound. The doctors treat it like a normal wound, but it actually came from a bayonet, causing deep damage. No one had remembered to ask what the type of weapon was. He then asks Gawande to diagnose a patient who goes asystole […]

Summary: The Checklist Manifesto – How to Get Things Right Summary

The Checklist Manifesto – How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande Introduction The Problem of Extreme Complexity The Checklist The End of the Master Builder The Idea The First Try The Checklist Factory The Test The Hero in the Age of Checklists The Save Summary The book offers a lot of great anecdotes about […]

What Got You Here Won't Get You There, Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Twenty-First Habit: Goal Obsession Goal obsession is not a flaw like the rest “comes from misunderstanding what we want in our lives” (99) “misunderstanding what others want us to do” (100) Examples Candace, the marketing executive Colonel Nicholson, from The Bridge on the River Kwai Wall Street Exec who kept getting divorced […]

Jamie Ly

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