> Having worked in the Tech Support field for a number of years, the "Hacker mentality" remains largely a mystery to me.
>
> I know I'm far from computer-illiterate, but most of the skills they have are well beyond mine, if they can do most of what's attributed to them.
>
> That being the case, why don't they put it to better use?

The missing characteristic, I think, is a lack of maturity. Hackers/crackers can be (CAN be) extremely smart, but the vast vast majority of the troublesome ones are simply immature. The rest of merely criminals with the sort of motivation that drives other criminals. The non-troublesome hackers, the ones that do put their skills to good use, are the ones you never hear about -- or simply not called "hackers" at all, depending on who you talk to.