>>11149964There are plenty of examples of prodigies that went on to actually succeed (Tao, Von Neumann, Wiener, Erdos, etc.)
A lot of child prodigies flop because the child's actual interests don't matter in the early stages of a prodigy's life. What creates a prodigy is talent+hyper-aggressive parenting; nobody cares if this 9 year old actually likes engineering or wants to be an engineer.
So when they reach the age where they can make their own decisions they just as often decide to drop all that shit and pursue their actual passions instead of staying with what they were railroaded into.
