Tara,
Yeah. One thing that does concern me involves a college friend of mine. This was a guy who started grad school in mathematics at age 15 (at Caltech, a serious school). He was the office mate of a good friend of mine, so I knew him pretty well.
I was the top undergrad physics major in my class, but this guy, three years younger than me, knew things about physics I did not understand. There were write-ups in the newspapers about him as a once-in-a-decade prodigy: he was the Terry Tao of my generation. Incidentally, he was a very nice guy -- never arrogant about his brilliance at all, although he was a bit socially inept, even by the standards of the rest of us geeks.
Last time I checked, he was working as a tax preparer.
Now, of course, tax preparer is a perfectly honorable profession, and I bet he does a fantastic job at it. But it was certainly not the career he had been hoping for as a student.
I don�t know the �backstory�: maybe he is quietly working away on the most significant advance in human history and soon we�ll know of it (like Einstein in the patent office).
Anyway, do you worry about your son having a similar experience � a child prodigy who sort of �burns himself out�?
I honestly know nothing about this, except for my college friend, and, as I say, I don�t really know the full story with him either. I�m not trying to insinuate anything one way or the other, and I hope you won�t take this as anything except an honest question.
I suppose that one could just take the tack of �Let the kid learn as fast as he can, and if he peaks at age 15, that�s life.�
All the best,
Dave
