The modern world has given us stupendous know-how. Yet avoidable failures continue to plague us in health care, government, the law, the financial industry-in almost every realm of organized activity. And the reason is simple: the volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded our ability as individuals to properly deliver it to people-consistently, correctly, safely. We train longer, specialize more, use ever advancing technologies, and still we fail. Atul Gawande makes a compelling argument that we can do better, using the simplest of methods: the lowly checklist.