Talk:Occam's Razor (House)

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Do we really, really need to know what game House is playing? or taking note that Hugh Laurie doesn't look & act like he's playing the game in question? It's this kind of hyper-attentive nerdism that gives Wikipedia a bad name. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.144.115.136 (talk • contribs)


 * Yes, that's why it's called Trivia. Leave it there. Sign your posts with ~  Blind  man   shady  20:10, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

The reference to Occam's Razor is technically incorrect, Occam's Razor, while often being used in the way stated in the article is actually "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity." meaning that A theory which makes the least number of assumptions is usually the best. However in the episode House makes a number of assumptions concerning the colcecine, while a number of other solutions assumed less unknowns. ie. Extacy cut with colcecine makes one assumption, whereas Cough medicine is not cough medicine, cough medicine is colcecine makes two.

Well, but "Cough medicine was switched with similar looking Colcecine" is also just one assumption. And not the theory with the least assumptions is usually the best, but the one that doesn't make more assumption than are necessary. That's a slight but significant difference. -78.51.77.108 (talk) 18:56, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Colchicine from ecstasy tablets
In the plot section, I had previously noted that ecstasy tablets being the source of Brandon's colchicine OD was very unlikely. While I cited references to back up this assertion, I understand that this constituted original research (synthesis) WP:SYN and Saranghae honey was correct in removing it. I added this footnote originally because the summary stated the possibility of colchicine adulteration without attributing that statement to any character. That is, it was presented as an out-universe possibility. I considered adding a qualification to that statement (i.e., that it was House's suggestion), but even though House mentioned it, he didn't appear at all convinced of the ecstasy theory. For example, House raided the pharmacy looking even after Brandon admitted to using ecstasy. So instead, I made several edits of the plot summary. Among these I changed the final interaction between Brandon and House to focus on why House orders colchicine OD treatment despite being unsure of the colchicine source. I hope you will find these welcome edits. Noca2plus (talk) 00:37, 11 February 2008 (UTC)


 * If the patient does not have characteristic colchicine diarrhoea the storyline falls flat on its face. JFW | T@lk  20:50, 14 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Yeah, never mentioned in the script so far as I can tell. Abdominal pain, but not diarrhea.  Would have been messy in the clean room; I've never noticed a toilet in that part of the set.  Oh well, I guess that's why it's called fiction.  Fortunately, accurate information on toxicity does exist at colchicine, so hopefully people won't be using this House episode to bone up on their toxicology. Noca2plus (talk) 21:51, 14 February 2008 (UTC)