>[!abstract] >Hickam's dictum, attributed to physician John Hickam, states that "patients can have as many diseases as they damn well please”. It serves as a counterpoint to Occam's razor in medicine, reminding clinicians that multiple, coexisting conditions may explain a presentation rather than a single unifying diagnosis. The dictum emphasizes diagnostic humility and the complexity of real-world cases, warning against oversimplification or premature closure. In a broader sense, it illustrates the limits of parsimony when dealing with systems where multiple independent causes may coexist. >[!related] >- **North** (upstream): [[Clinical reasoning]] >- **West** (similar): [[Sutton's law]] >- **East** (different): [[Occam's razor]] >- **South** (downstream): [[Differential diagnosis]]