This assumes that, when left to their own devices, kids will stumble upon things they love. This is false, because kids mostly don't know where to look, don't have any incentive to look and have the attention span of a goldfish.
You are thinking what it would have been like for you and the error you are making is forgetting that most kids are not like you were. Most kids don't end up as adults on Hacker News. When left alone, without being introduced to a wide variety of subjects, most kids would play games on the street with their friends, never take up a book and certainly never attempt to organize anything bigger than the next match against the kids of the next neighbourhood.
You are thinking what it would have been like for you and the error you are making is forgetting that most kids are not like you were. Most kids don't end up as adults on Hacker News. When left alone, without being introduced to a wide variety of subjects, most kids would play games on the street with their friends, never take up a book and certainly never attempt to organize anything bigger than the next match against the kids of the next neighbourhood.