The most important thing that you can do for this kid is to make sure he knows how to study properly when he gets into school. Every word you've said so far could describe me to a T when I was 6, and I did great in school without ever trying, so when I graduated high school and went off to college I flunked out halfway through because I never learned how to study. It bored me, so when I didn't just "get" something immediately like I had always done before, I often just didn't learn anything.

I consider that to be the one big major thing that prevented me from executing on the trajectory I was on. Had I learned how to learn when I needed to, today I could be some six figure code wizard milking investment money out of VC's and techbros. Instead I'm an automotive mechanic near the poverty line with no college degree to my name.

I'm not upset with my own life path, per se, for a number of reasons - I enjoy my work, I consider it ethical (in as far as supporting the automotive industry can be ethical...) and not least of which I'd probably have never met my partner if not for this twisted road I've gone down. But sometimes when I think about it too much the sense of lost potential is a little overwhelming.

Learning how to make himself sit down and learn something even when it's boring is a necessary skill that he may not develop on his own. I sure didn't, and look where it put me.

Take up this torch, kid, and do better than me. You have it in you. Someday soon we might all be depending on you.