Forbes’ Adam Lashinsky writes:It’s time for Silicon Valley to accept the same laws that govern the rest of American business, says Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky.

A key tenet of life in Silicon Valley is that the technology industry is different from other businesses.

Employee compensation in the stock option culture is different. Accounting typically follows its own set of rules. Performance metrics that businesspeople elsewhere wouldn’t recognize are coin of the realm here. It’s an obnoxious attitude that nevertheless undoubtedly fuels a good deal of the tech industry’s outsized success.

This distinct form of exceptionalism was on display at last week’s Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco during a particularly illuminating panel discussion, “The Pirate and the Suit.” It featured DJ-mashup artist Eric Kleptone, who created the wildly popular “A Night at the Hip Hopera,” and David Munns, vice chairman of EMI Music.