Here’s the thing about the F-word. When you use it, you have to think ahead. You have to be sure that it’s the thing to say, because once you deploy it, you’re committed. There’s no going back. If you later are forced to eat your words, the F-word goes down hardest of all.

For example, say the governor of your state has asked you for a list of budget cuts. Deep budget cuts. Like, 10 percent of your entire budget. Because, you know, the state is out of money, and he won’t raise taxes, so cutting is all that’s left to do. You could provide him with the list, as painful and rotten as it is, and wait for the budget axe to fall. (Hey, at least its falling where you — presumably — told him to cut, the areas that will least impact the people you serve, right?)

Or you could deploy the F-word. You could tell him that you’re not going to make cuts, that you’re well into your budget year, that contracts have already been signed, people have already committed to your program, and that it’s well-nigh impossible to cut now. You could even tell him that you already cut a lot, and that he should go find other places to cut.

In essence, you could tell him to go F-word himself.

But be warned: That’s a risky strategy. See, the governor in your state might have a lot of power, thanks to a constitution that makes the Legislature weak by design. Even if you have a separate board elected to oversee your program, you still might not be safe from the budget-cutting demands of your chief executive. Heck, he might just cut your department a smaller check, at which point you’d have no choice but to cut. It’s not like you can pay for everything on your state-issued credit card, right?

In that instance, you’d be forced to eat your words, including the F-word. Yes, you could dress it up, make it look like it’s not a big deal, like you didn’t just a month earlier sit down and write a memo that clearly, unmistakably and universally was recognized by everybody involved — including the governor — as the F-word memo. You could try that. But nobody would believe it.

The moral of the story is not “never use the F-word.” Sometimes, you have to use the F-word. Sometimes, it’s a moral imperative, in fact.

No, the moral of the story is, “be careful when you do use the F-word.” Think ahead. War game it for a little bit.

Because there’s nothing worse than — after you think you’ve properly deployed the F-word — realizing that you miscalculated, and hearing your target say in reply, “F-word me? No, F-word you!”