That's exactly it.
Better to know sooner than later, true; but also better to not have completely painted yourself into just one corner to start with. That's where loving parents prod children to remain interested in other things, too, and to make time for those things.
FWIW, looking back into my childhood quirks, I can honestly say at this point in time that it was
GLARINGLY apparent that my destiny lay in science of some kind. My parents didn't recognize that, because neither of them thought that way and so they didn't see it for what it was when I attempted to 'test' a pair of pet rodents as to: color preferences, learning, and memory
at six years old. I was (completely intuitively)
using controls for my variables in each case. While I was a kid with very high potential in visual arts, in music, and in writing,
I was a scientist. Hard-wired-- it was just how my brain processed the world and how I approached learning on an instinctive basis. I couldn't shut that off if I tried.
I see the same characteristics in my daughter, by the way. She has wanted to be an attorney (civil rights law) since she was six-- so the same kind of durable interest, basically. I don't make too much of it, other than to praise how well she knows herself (she loves to read-read-read and can read truly awe-inspiring volumes of information in very short periods of time, and her debating skills are exemplary, including persuasive writing and the ability to take either side-- even extemporaneously). Still; I wonder if her destiny isn't in science as well, and perhaps she just hasn't seen the subject that acts as the match to light that fire. She has all of the same signs as her dad and I both did as children. The same way of processing and discovery, the same intuitive grasp of the null hypothesis, etc.
It's interesting to watch kids like this as they develop.
