Personally, I have three different philosophies on aircraft checklists. The simplest is the memory checklists which I use for gliders only. All gliders I fly use the same checklist and I've had it memorized since I was 16 so it's not something I'm likely to forget. For anything more complex I rely on a paper checklist to verify that all items important to safety have been completed.
For aircraft that I am experienced and current in, I have a vital action checklist. It's very short, and only covers the items that I consider required for safe flight. Stuff like doors and belts, fuel management, and controls. These checklists are run only after I already have everything ready so it's really just a check list.
Lastly for aircraft that I am not familiar with or that I am not current on, I pull out the manufacturer's checklist and use them as a read and do list. This is not a very efficient way of flying an aircraft as there is a lot of stuff in there that isn't vital to flight safety. When using these checklists, it's important to go slow, be very disciplined, and not start skipping steps in order to speed things up. When learning a new aircraft I tend to make to make my own checklist fairly quickly because it drives me nuts sitting on the ground with the engine running doing a 20 step read and do checklist.
Which leaves me puzzled as to what type of checklist we are talking about in the other thread.
I assume photofly means that he leaves the mixture lean until right before takeoff power is applied and doesn't mean that he puts the mixture full rich for the before takeoff checklist, then leans the mixture again after the checklist is complete. In either case, I don't see how this checklist is useful. If it's a read and do, there seems to be a big disconnect between when the item is read and when it is to be done. If it's a vital action, then the checklist shouldn't even be started until all the items on it are already thought to be done. What am I missing here?