A GFI (Good F***ing Idea) is the opposite of an appropriate technology: it’s something that would be a good idea under different conditions and with more resources, but which makes no sense whatever in the actual circumstance.
Email from a friend in the Army in Iraq introduces me to a wonderful new (to me) military acronym: GFI. (G stands for “good” and I for “idea.”)
A GFI is the opposite of an appropriate technology: it’s something that would be a good idea under different conditions and with more resources, but which makes no sense whatever in the actual circumstance.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman
In other words, GFI, for the Larry Niven fans in the audience, is "Crazy Eddie."
More wonderful military acronyms:
PFM. Used to describe cool technology. "P" stands for "Pure" and "M" stands for "Magic".
BFM. When you have something even cooler than PFM. "B" stands for "Black".
you mean like the war in Iraq? Would that have been a good idea under any circunstances, even if the necessary and available resources were employed?
Or do you mean like contesting the vote count in Ohio, home of the "guaranteed GOP victory"? Kerry evidently had the money but not the will…