• (disco) in reply to aliceif
    aliceif:
    Not on steam. 25€ for Civ IV is highway robbery.

    Unless you want to wait for a sale. I'm pretty sure I paid $10 for it.

  • (disco) in reply to herby
    herby:
    All of this sounds like "The department of redundancy department". Another explanation might be look up "recursion" in some texts (K&R is but one example).

    Also, please refer to the definition of "insanity": Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

    Life goes on, as it is a terminal disease.

    Insanity: N See Insanity

    asdf:
    I liked it. Though many people have told me I wouldn't have liked it if I knew the predecessor. Unfortunately, I've never played IV. Should I buy it?
    Yes. Yes you should.
    aliceif:
    Not on steam. 25€ for Civ IV is highway robbery.

    You can probably get it for half that price at local electronics stores - at least where I live. Also, $15 at amazon (which even includes Colonization!).

    Honestly I still get that much out of it... But that may just be me :stuck_out_tongue: It usually goes down to something like 5 during Steam sales though
  • (disco)

    Glory to Arstotzka!

  • (disco) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    And not all bureaucracy (good or bad) is in government.

    I am pretty firmly of the opinion that all large organisations are the same, government or not. This is a people, management and risk aversion problem. To manage (avoid) risk, more and more process is added. Processes need to be clear, highly detailed and easy enough for a monkey to follow because most people are monkeys and once an organisation reaches a large size, most of the employees will also be monkeys. So the outputs tend towards mediocrity.

    The solution would be better management: Hire smart people and let them get on with their jobs. Getting that done in any big organisation is close enough to impossible because the hiring practices are also heavy processes, meaning the output (people getting hired) tends toward mediocrity too. Including the people in HR. And around we go again.

  • (disco) in reply to another_sam
    another_sam:
    The solution would be better management

    The solution is to approach bureaucracy with an engineering mind: you've got a complicated machine, that's all. Some of the parts are people, but it really doesn't make any difference, as they behave like cogs. Once you see how the system works, you can also see where you apply force/pressure to get the change you want. Often you don't need to do very much provided you apply it just right.

    Understanding a system as complicated as most government bureaucracies might take some time…

  • (disco) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    as they behave like cogs

    Treating people like this is what leads to the heavy-handed processes.

    Engineering isn't a good approach to political problems.

  • (disco) in reply to another_sam
    another_sam:
    I am pretty firmly of the opinion that all large organisations are the same, government or not.

    The biggest difference that one typically sees is the existence of negative feedback. Neither will usually be particularly sensitive to it, but the private organization has a better shot at getting killed off.

    another_sam:
    Treating people like this is what leads to the heavy-handed processes.

    I vehemently disagree here. Assuming that what he means is that people respond to incentives, and if you set up a system with shitty incentives, you'll get a shitty system, no matter how smart or well trained or cared about the people are.

  • (disco) in reply to boomzilla
    boomzilla:
    but the private organization has a better shot at getting killed off.

    Eventually, which can take a long time if some parts of the organization are functioning well.

  • (disco) in reply to dkf

    Yes. Like a nation, there can be a lot of ruin in an organization. But that's part of what I meant by, "better shot at."

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