Johnny W. Warren

Lawyers often approach cases and clients as unique. Actually, we see similar fact scenarios over and over and we apply law that does not change in the short run. Atul Gawande suggests in The Checklist Manifesto,that a simple checklist works well in the surgical theatre and will work just as well in aviation, construction and in the legal environment.
Gawande asserts and makes the case that a checklist can help each of us to manage the mundane and the complex. He supports the premise that in medicine, in law and in aviation, the problem is applying the training and the knowledge that we have consistently and correctly. He argues that failure results from ineptitude rather than from ignorance.
While Gawande supports his premise primarily with examples from medicine he does include examples of the successful use of checklists in aviation and construction. His writing is current, including the emergency landing, "The Miracle on the Hudson River" in January, 2009, which provided an example of the use of simultaneously managed checklists for restarting the engine and ditching the plane.

All in all, the book was written with clarity and it moved well so that interest is maintained.

This book was well written and addresses a subject which has not been addressed often enough; the positive side of otherwise debilitating conditions. This book deals with Lincoln's melancholia like the book "Churchill's Black Dog and Kafka's Mice" addresses the "positive" impact of the bipolar condition in Churchhill's life.