I like this quote ... and agree with the spirit of it.
That said, some central governing body does need to make sure certain needs of the community are taken care of. That way, we ensure that the whole community is taken care of and we're not in an every man for himself scenario where the "strong" prevail and the "weak" die off. When the government provides military to protect it's citizens, it does so for all citizens, not just the rich, not just the city dwellers. I guess the question is -to what else does this apply and to what extent?
I'd like to hear what the "lessons learned" were for each of these. And how did these dead products help shape future products that were perhaps more successful.
Especially #2 -imo a dynamically typed language/library warrants having better documentation, not worse.