"don't think zebras"

[Victor Steinbok]

There are some fun ones. Google autocomplete the quote once you type
"think hor". The earliest two hits seem to be 1995, attributing to
"Doctors at the Himalayan Rescue Association" and 1994, "The phrase
"Think horses, not zebras" will sound familiar to just about any
American-trained physician or clinical psychologist, and perhaps to
those who've studied those fields in other countries as well".

I did not complete the review (scanned about 120 out of 200+), nor did I
try any variations. The former seems implausible, the latter--apocryphal.

     VS-)

On 2/18/2010 6:06 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> Not in the Yale Book of Quotations nor a couple of recent Oxford
> books of quotations.
>
> "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras."
>
> Attributed in the NYT by Michiko Kakutani (Books of the Times, Feb.
> 16, 2010) to "the character Gil Grissom in 'CSI: Crime Scene
> Investigation'", and characterized by her as succinctly put by him.
>
> This must go back earlier. I've heard it attributed to real doctors
> but I don't know how long ago.
>
> What say the industrious CSInvestigators?
>
> Joel
>
>

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