Agree with your ideas on risk being lower for these technical kids. I had this discussion with my son's pediatrician when discussing my son's interests, screen time, etc.
I mentioned he was interested in game development (he was taking a programming course at the time, has taken a couple of other courses since, and done some interesting things in animation using various tools including flash., and so on...)
He brought up limiting screen time, 'internet addiction', etc., also saying that 'game dev' was like 'rock star' as far as careers go...which maybe it used to be, but I think with smart phones, ouya, steam and other such platforms it is much easier to get into game design and development.
More importantly (to me) the skills one uses to develop a game are pretty portable to other areas of information technology.
As an aside, I think this is an pretty healthy interest which he expresses and learns about in different ways:
watching online videos regarding video game history, technique, criticism, story development, etc.
playing video games, of course.
taking classes, making games
learning about robotics/electronics/more programming with us at home
reading magazine articles and books and watching videos about game marketing, video game industry info, etc.
drawing and animation (on the computer and on paper)
Well I am not sure it was our conversation about the skills being transferable, but I came to find out a few months later that the doctor's oldest son is very interested in video game development as well and taking a course at school. The dr. is allowing him more screen time because as his son has told him 'you can work on and develop the projects as much as you want'...It is nice to hear he is giving him more latitude with that.
