I'm a volunteer firefighter. One of the drawbacks of being a volunteer is that we don't typically get as much experience as our career counterparts, and that means in particular that we get less chance to develop muscle-memory and actual-memory of how to do things [0].
Consequently, I've come to have a much greater regard for simple checklists that make sure that we're doing basic stuff, we do it right. My favorite example: switching the fire engine's engine from driving the transmission to driving the pump. It's basically 3 or 4 steps, but when you only do this (at most) once a month (typically), remembering the steps is challenging, and it is even harder to remember to do the mandatory 2-3 second pause between each one.
The contrast with my life as a C++ developer for 35+ years is telling. In that world, almost everything is memory, and what isn't is both (a) look-up-able online (b) not time- or life-critical.
The brief time I've been a firefighter has made me very aware of a totally different side of my cognition - no, Paul, you actually don't remember most things at all - and has given me a great deal of respect for checklists to help prop up our minds in one of their weakest areas.
[0] truth is, I doubt that even the career firefighters in a lot of departments get enough daily experience for most things to become memorized, certainly not without many, many years responding to calls.
Consequently, I've come to have a much greater regard for simple checklists that make sure that we're doing basic stuff, we do it right. My favorite example: switching the fire engine's engine from driving the transmission to driving the pump. It's basically 3 or 4 steps, but when you only do this (at most) once a month (typically), remembering the steps is challenging, and it is even harder to remember to do the mandatory 2-3 second pause between each one.
The contrast with my life as a C++ developer for 35+ years is telling. In that world, almost everything is memory, and what isn't is both (a) look-up-able online (b) not time- or life-critical.
The brief time I've been a firefighter has made me very aware of a totally different side of my cognition - no, Paul, you actually don't remember most things at all - and has given me a great deal of respect for checklists to help prop up our minds in one of their weakest areas.
[0] truth is, I doubt that even the career firefighters in a lot of departments get enough daily experience for most things to become memorized, certainly not without many, many years responding to calls.