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cousin_it comments on Open Thread, August 2010 - Less Wrong
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Books are not enough. Smart kids are lonely. Get him into a good school (or other community) where he won't be the smartest one. That happened to me at 11 when I was accepted into Russia's best math school and for the first time in my life I met other people worth talking to, people who actually thought before saying words. Suddenly, to regain my usual position of the smart kid, I had to actually work hard. It was very very important. I still go to school reunions every year, even though I finished it 12 years ago.
Alternatively, not having any equally smart kids to talk to will force him to read books and/or go online for interesting ideas and conversation. I don't think I had any really interesting real-life conversations until college, when I did an internship at Microsoft Research, and I'd like to think that I turned out fine.
My favorite book, BTW, is A Fire Upon the Deep. But one of the reasons I like it so much is that I was heavily into Usenet when I first read it, and I'm not sure that aspect of the book will resonate as much today. (I was determined to become a one-man Sandor Arbitration Intelligence. :)
Seconded. Whether he's exposed to a group of people who think ideas can be cool could be the biggest influence on him for the rest of his life.
Thirded. My experience is that most schools can be very damaging for smart kids.