My friend you have stumbled into one of life's great mysteries, why do we follow our heart and never our head?!!

Done the same stuff w/ model cars, model boats, model planes, even a bit of that w/ real cars.  I used to think is everyone getting dumber or am I just getting smarter???  Then I realized maybe a bit of both, my dad has a saying "the fox is'nt so smart because he's a fox, but because he's an old fox."  Experience and wisdom only happen after a long series of dumb actions and adverse outcomes.  If you don't have those adverse outcomes you're not doing anything anyways.... like another saying "if you aint crashin you aint flyin!"  

Another part of the equation, these things are much funner when your sharing it with someone, unfortunately most of the time that someone is a weekend warrior compared to your enlisted green baret that most hardcore modelers are.  Family, friends, and neighborhood kids at least get some exposure (at your and my expense) but I think they too are the better for it.  I do hate the sense I have that they never really appreciate the amount of work, time, and money that I spent to get such and such rc vehicle running only for them to run it wide open into the curb, or full power into the ground, or wide open into the dam face....

Happy driving, flying, and floating[8D] it all makes the world a better place!  Steve.