This is, I think, something that a lot of people who push back against checklists missunderstand. They feel that the checklist is meant as a replacement for their knowledge, skill and experience. An insult to their ability. But really it's just meant to help them not make very human errors of ommission or miss-sequencing that anyone, no matter how smart or experienced, can make.
Too many experts, in every field, stuggle with the idea that they too will make mistakes sometimes, and that this is perfectly normal no matter how good you are at what you do if you doo it often enough.
I struggle with this too— another way to think about it is that a checklist frees your mind to think of more creative/important things. By delegating the mundane to the checklist, your brain no longer needs to constantly track the basics and instead is free to focus on higher order thinking.
I find it takes a disproportionate amount of mental energy just to track even 5-10 items. Committing those items to a written list makes it easier for me to take that limited resource and be creative instead of constantly wondering if I completed step 3.
I like that way of phrasing it. I wish more people would think about things in this more positive light, but unfortunately whenever something like this comes up people start to get defensive.
Too many experts, in every field, stuggle with the idea that they too will make mistakes sometimes, and that this is perfectly normal no matter how good you are at what you do if you doo it often enough.