Hollywood and Silicon Valley

In The New York Times, Laura M. Holson wonders whether the movie business could learn lessons from the high tech industries.

A particularly salient difference, of course, is how each culture approaches failure. Silicon Valley, to a point, celebrates it, while entertainment creators in Southern California cannot distance themselves fast enough from anything that might be a bomb. And Hollywood talent likes a success story; but only if it is their own.

“If a successful director has a flop, his peers and colleagues question whether he has lost his touch,” [venture capitalist] Mr. Kvamme said. “By contrast, in the Valley, if you have a failure, that usually means that you have learned something. There are very few successful serial entrepreneurs. Failure is almost a rite of passage.”