This is totally true. The sad thing is technically minded people who ARE in the military still have a hard time getting any type of computer job. I came to the Air Force after completing an Associates degree in Computer Network Technology (this was a time before security-specific training was really pushed). I went to the recruiter and tried to get any job that was computer related. I had extremely high test scores (overall 92 on my ASVAB) and I qualified for just about any job (there are a few jobs that require additional tests). I have extensive knowledge in both Windows and Linux server adminstration and also managing users and fixing problems (malware and picnic errors) on the desktop. What job did I find myself in? Air Transportation. Basically the loading and unloading of airplanes. I have had numerous supervisors wonder why I am in this career field (it certainly was not by choice). I have also tried to cross-train (switch into a different career field), and even with multiple recommendations from mulitple people in my chain of command, I got turned down.

I am the go to computer guy for any nearby offices before they call the actual people whose job it is to fix our systems. I have even helped them when they can't figure things out (I am limited in what I can do due to system lockdowns). But if I want to try and actually do ANYTHING computer related for my career... I get turned down.

The system definitely is flawed.

I think you are forgetting about the love people can have for their interests. Car lovers souping up their engines even if they can only drive 65mph legally (unless you live in Germany like me :D ). "Let's make something faster that will give us worse fuel economy and have no practical benefits unless we take it to a track."

How about architects? They design these grandiose buildings that due to all the windows require more energy to keep the temperature maintained. Are archways really necessary? Why put a chandelier when a cheaper light fixture could work?

You can see this in every aspect of our lives. Scrapbooking... do we really need all these fancy designs for our pictures, rather than just labeling who is in it and what they are doing (or where they are)?

The fact is that people have their interests. Some peoples interests include overclocking. I have done it before with great results. I didn't even do it for the gaming, but for video encoding. 20% faster on a 2 hour long video that you are doing a 2-pass encode on saves you quite a bit of time. Especially when you have batch operations with 30 some-odd videos. And my PC lasted 5 years until the USPS broke it while in transit when I tried to ship it over to Germany.

I have considered overclocking my current machine (AMD X2 6400, 4GB), because occasionally I run into minor stuttering when it is transcoding high-def video that is streaming to my xbox. Could I buy a new quad-core processor that would do it without a problem? Absolutely. Could I shut down a bunch of stuff running on my machine that is taking processor time from the transcoding job? Absolutely. Could I pipe lower quality videos to my xbox that don't require transcoding? Absolutely. But I could also overclock my processor and not have to do any of those other things. It allows me to squeeze extra life out of this processor before I finally decide to bite the bullet and upgrade.

And as for your using stock heatsinks/fans, there are reasons to upgrade even if you aren't overclocking. Upgraded HSF (Heatsinks and fans) are usually better performing. Keeping the heat down will also help with power consumption. They are also quieter. My stock AMD HSF can get quite noisy when my computer is going full bore. Plus you can get some cool looking ones, which goes back to the love people have for their computers. My computer has a side window and the majority of my fans are blue lit. I get comments from people as it is with the stock heatsink. If I got one that added blue leds to the fan or just something a bit flashier, well it adds to the overall appearance.

I think you should just be more tolerable of what people like to do in their own time. If they want to spend their time overclocking, or replacing their car's exhaust, or spending time cutting out all these "cute" things to go into a scrapbook... let them (and preferable without berating their interests at the same time).