Tech-culture places a lot of emphasis on being smart, on "intelligence". Is it enough to be smart, to be a critical thinker?

Or do you make better products if you have industry experience? And what about passion?

Sure, some products are pure engineering. To do a good job you just need to focus on efficiency and attention to detail. Use the best algorithm, profile the code and count clock cycles, set up a test that measures performance, etc. But I am not sure this situation covers many of the products today because more and more products involve some human element of taste or style or just human behavior.

For instance, what about products like movies and games? What separates Tolkein's Lord of the Rings from the 268 fantasy books by Weis and Hickman? What separates the Xmen from Cyborg III: Death to Humans or the countless made-for-TV movies about shark DNA or giant alligators on the Sci-Fi channel?

Movies, books and game software involve an element of art. I often hear the complaint: "This was clearly designed by a committee of MBA's. It has the checklist of features but no soul, no passion. A romantic interest, a car chase, huge explosions and lots of special effects: It has everything but the final product is just off somehow. It doesnt shine, it sucks."

For every hit there are 10 or 20 mediocre and forgettable products. What distinguishes the great works from the chaff?

In some cases the difference is skill or funding. A top-quality product takes top quality skills, whether that is programming or film editing or special effects. But there are plenty of big-budget failures. Projects that had all the resources they needed to succeed, yet didnt.

I've been thinking the real difference-maker is passion. The difference is some indefinable artistic energy, an artistic vision and the story that goes with it. It is the passion that causes a director to say "this isnt it yet", to go back and try it again. One needs the story to have something to say and the passion to say it properly. Peter Jackson's LOTR is a perfect example of a terrific story that took Herculean efforts to tell well.

Sure there is a market for products with lame stories that are executed well. Valve's Half-Life was a triumph of both execution and story while id's Quake are a triumph of execution over story. But I would argue that Half-Life is a masterpiece and will be remembered as such while Quake will be remember as a technical milestone and Quake III wont be remembered at all.

The reason passion and vision are so important is because they are all that one has when called before the Board of MBA's. The Board has an Excel checklist and survey data on focus groups and statistical models. They want a blockbuster with item's A through Z and they want it yesterday. What do you have? You need to ask for more money or more time or both. Your only weapon, your only guide is that feeling in your heart that knows when the product is really ready for the audience.

Sometimes the board prevails. Sometimes the artist prevails. And every once in a long while, a masterpiece is the result.