”… One trick I’ve learned is to force myself to make a list of what’s actually wrong. Usually, soon into making the list, I find I can group most of the issues into two or three larger all-encompassing problems. So it’s really not all that bad. Having a finite list of problems is much better than having an illogical feeling that everything is wrong.” – Pete Doctor

A Checklist is a good way of reminding you what’s missing.”

Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen, in their book Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck — Why Some Thrive Despite Them All, note: “Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.

The interview reminded him about his broader situation and the things he had to do to move forward. He was essentially reminded of his “list” and various priorities during our conversation.

Making a list is a basic tool for overcoming our own cognitive limitations. The list itself counters forgetfulness. The act of making a list forces us to reflect on the relative urgency and importance of issues. And making a list of “things to do, now” rather than “things to worry about” forces us to resolve concerns into actions.

It’s natural to think these abstractions will save us time and improve our decision-making, but in many cases they don’t. Reading a summary might be faster than reading a full document, but it misses a lot of details— details that weren’t relevant to the person summarizing the information, but that might be relevant to you. You end up saving time at the cost of missing important information. Skimming inadvertently creates blind spots.

Information is food for the mind. What you put in today shapes your solutions tomorrow. And just as you are responsible for the food that goes into your mouth, you are responsible for the information that goes into your mind. You can't be healthy if you feed yourself junk food every day, and you can't make good decisions if you’re consuming low-quality information. Higher quality inputs lead to higher quality outputs.

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Churn— Claude M. Steele

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Introduction

Sometimes the complexity of a problem obscures a part of it that, if addressed, could greatly improve things. Take hospital-acquired infections, for example. These infections— pneumonia, bloodstream and wound infections, urinary tract infections— affect 1.7 million patients a year, killing as many as 99,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They have complex causes— invasive procedures like surgery and catheterizations, immunocompromised patients, stethoscope contact, pathogens that resist antibiotics, and so on. Yet disciplined handwashing by hospital staff with antibacterial soaps and gels can reduce their occurrence by 50 to 70 percent. Handwashing isn’t a cure-all. But it offers significant traction against these diseases.