Especially for big projects, I often get the sense that failing a couple times is seen as unthinkable in the US: so a lot of ambitious initiatives lose funding

Especially for big projects, I often get the sense that failing a couple times is seen as unthinkable in the US: so a lot of ambitious initiatives lose funding or become laughingstocks because of publicized early failures. As a result, there’s a tendency to over-engineer in some areas and reduce ambitions in others.