What the heck is schmuckfactor?

A few years ago I was being trained to run a ropes course. At a "talk time" during one of the days of training one of the instructors was talking to us about risk management and used the term "schmuckfactor" to describe the relationship between potential risk and potential reward. This ratio was basically described as being low if the potential reward was high and the potential risk was low. It was considered high if the potential reward was low and the corresponding risk was high.

We spent the rest of that training doing our best to assess the schmuckfactor of every action that we did. We would analyze the schmuck factor of our meal choices, our hobbies, and even our chosen career fields.

I would like to say that there is some great philosophical meaning to this schmuckfactor thing, and I am sure that there is, but I am afraid that I don't know what it is right now. The actual reason that this is the name of the blog is that all of my other choices had been taken, and I despise putting numbers on a name to make it usable. Each name I came up with was punched into the field with the hope that this name would certainly be usable. Each expectation was met with a greater disappointment.

You see, I really wanted a name that would express something about the person that I am. I wanted it to be unique. It is hard to feel unique when your address has to be "3strands172" @whatever.com. With that desire to be unique, I plumbed the depths of my personality for phrases and words that might capture the essence of my personhood. I am a little concerned that I may have plunged so far into the depths of who I am that the significance of my unique moniker is going to be lost to anyone who knows me.

There are some of you who may say that the opposite of that statement should be true. You might say that the name is totally significant and that's what is really scary.