just call us diagnosticians

Stumped after a day of troubleshooting and investigation, a fellow engineer (E) and I consulted a senior engineer (P). Knowing from experience that P might try to escape if the problem was not presented in compelling enough fashion, I opened with this:

Me: You know how, in House, the patient presents with a certain set of symptoms, but the more tests the doctors run, the more problems they find that have nothing to do with the original set of symptoms?

P: And the patient always lies! We never get the whole truth from the customer when they're returning equipment for repair. "Oh yeah, I have no idea how those parts got broken..."

Me: Exactly! So... [describes a constellation of problems]

P: Actually, this fits really well into the House system, because the story I got is... [relays additional information]

Me: Aha! I'll consult you next time I need a differential diagnosis.

P: Now I need a whiteboard.

E: It's never lupus.