[wwweston]

I wonder if there's anything professionals developing software could learn from this by analogy.

[jrs235]

Yes. The "silver bullet" is having people that care and those people are all pulling in the same direction.

[maxxxxx]

Motivated team chooses technology X. Succeeds. Other team chooses X but forgets to have motivated people?

[mark-r]

I think you've just described Agile.