Years ago, the awesome kid’s TV show Anamaniacs sometimes had a short segment called ‘Good Idea, Bad Idea’ that contrasted two semantically similar, but hilariously different ideas (just watch the video in the link – it’s sort.)

I was reminded of ‘Good Idea, Bad Idea’ by two recent articles about two separate NASA initiatives, both with similar price tags of about $1.5 Million. The contrast is striking.

Good NASA Spending:

Using the incredibly effective mechanism of competition to encourage innovation.

Bad NASA Spending:

 Yet another simulated Mars mission.  How many are necessary?  There are only so many permutations of ‘let’s observe what happens when a small group of people live in a box together in the middle of nowhere and have to wear funny clothes a lot.’

Perhaps I’m missing a bigger picture, but it really strikes me as another example of risk aversion paralysis.