#even with all the fuckups and issues and shortcomings

[kimmkitsuragi]

literally no one asked but if i was the head of larian i'd just ask for

MORE content with wyll and karlach to make up for the big gap - this would also improve the story too since they're supposed to play central roles lmao

more dialogue options and interactions and general improvements for act 3 - because it's a massive area but it still doesnt feel as fleshed out as the first two acts

a side quest or something for halsin minthara (and possibly minsc too??) in act 3 so they feel more involved in the story lol

more customization in character creator for body types

add more levels and scale the difficulty of fights accordingly

a dlc somewhere along the way and introduce the upper city and/or a new origin character (not a companion- a new variation of tav/durge but idk)

and basically with all of this i feel like the game would be close to perfect for me. then they can just keep adding new silly fun stuff forever and i'd be seated and playing fr

[goldcrush]

Right now i understand its all to do with the controversy with ole in Norway and not football matters 🤔 the experience thing is nonsense plenty of ex players went straight into management and did well ! So that's not a problem the same players are doing the same things under ole that they did under jose what happened to maguire has messed him up pogba again saying he wanted to leave 🐍🤬 caused stress greenwood being a muppet and twat Ed being completely incompetent to run a club and deal with the transfer market and undermine ole in that is where the problem is! Having a policeman as your dad should let you see things from a correct view not based on other contexts

No you did not understand me at all. First and foremost my issue with Ole is that he IS NO WAY COMPETENT enough to manage a football club the stage Manchester United are on. He is clearly out of this depth but you refuse to see it or acknowledge it, simple as that. You are hanging onto Ole Gunnar Solskjaer the player, the super sub, the one who has won it in 1999, the club legend and it's clouding your judgement of him. If he wasn't either of those would you still defend his disasterclasses tooth and nails? Would you? No.

You are going on about how it's the players are to blame for everything but do you even realize we have a better squad than every prem side save for Liverpool, City and Chelsea? Do you realize? Yet we are sitting proudly at 15th (with a game in hand) and our football is utter shit and totally unwatchable. These players aren't coached properly or at all for fuck's sake!! What's not clicking about that? We have so many quality players or players with considerable potential but they aren't managed the way they should be. We have no game plan, Ole knows next to no tactics that would actually work and he can't even use his subs smartly! His lineups? Let's not talk about that either cause it's ridiculous what he is doing most of the time.

If our players are such crap then do you seriously think Leicester City, Spurs, Arsenal, Wolves, Aston Villa, Everton, Southampton, Leeds, Crystal Palace, Newcastle and West Ham United have a better squad than us??? No, they are just managed way better, all of them, at the moment. We on the other hand are clueless as hell and so is your hero Solskjaer.. he is counting on a spark of genius from Rashford, Martial or Greenwood to win games for us but that's it. Heaven forbid we concede cause sure as fuck we can't come back from that, he doesn't know how to achieve that. Like how we defended that 2-1 yesterday.. pathetically. So yes, lack of experience is proving to be a HUGE fucking issue and it's laughable that you think it's not. In this moment of time Ole does NOT have what it takes to be Manchester United's permanent manager and appointing him on such basis was a mistake. Oh yes he went straight into management and had fantastic success with Molde in the Elitserien and of course I did not forget that he got promoted with Cardiff City.. then relegated them right away and almost sent them to the third tier... Anyway, like I said he has great achievements in the Norwegian league but with all due respect to Molde and the Elitserien that absolutely cannot be compared to the United job which is an entirely different stage. You refuse to see it cause you can't view him objectively. If he wasn't Ole Gunnar Solskjaer United legend but simply Ole Solskjaer from Kristiansund you would not overlook his shortcomings and fuckups like the way you do.

As for Woodward we ALL know he should have nothing to do with the football part and the transfers but you straight up act like Ole is somehow getting a worse treatment than the previous managers..which IS NOT TRUE. Moyes didn't last one season ffs, he was sacked with 4 games to go which was a bit disgraceful on our part tbh. He was bad but he didn't deserve that in my humble opinion. LvG got more time sure but not much more support when it came to transfers and especially the players he asked for. He managed to win an FA cup though as a parting gift. And José.. he didn't get nowhere near that backing that he needed to succeed and at the same time his ego alone was bigger than the whole club itself and created a very toxic environment in the end. He wasn't it for us either but it wasn't because of his competence. So Ole isn't some special snowflake who has it worst.. all of our managers got the short end of the stick from Woodward and the board and they had to deal with that. Solskjaer can't even put together a decent lineup or manage that squad he has at hand.. what does it say about him? He didn't get the players he asked for but if he can't even coach those he has then it's pointless to complain about that.

Controversy in Norway??? Please you did not just say that to me. Controversy? Your hero supported and played and coddled and captained a player who raped at least 5 women. He decided to just turn a blind eye to that, to excuse that because football and his personal success was more important to him than exposing and excluding Babacar Sarr from his team!!! What context or perspective am I supposed to see this from??? You are one of the very few people on here who know what was done to me and you are still implying I should just excuse that? Solskjaer supporting a rapist? I can't and I won't. You better accept he is very much morally questionable and is no way a saint and I don't fucking care that "he has won it".

[gurguliare]

Anyway I finally finally finished the TM post-mortem so have one last rundown

Really loved: Signet’s stupid relics runway show, Ali describing the Mirage/Splice resolution as “the most amazing Gift of the Magi fuckup,” and, oddly, Keith’s reflections on anarchism, though idk if enough of that made it legibly into the season---which is one of the ways Gig was underserved, I guess.

I also enjoyed and appreciated the discussion of TM’s utopianism as monumental artistic challenge. I obviously have criticisms wrt execution and I disagree with some of their analysis of TM’s failures and shortcomings, but I thought everyone was refreshingly honest about the sheer scale of the task, in a way that I often missed during the series proper---when the tone sometimes tended more toward “we’ve set ‘depicting a utopia’ as our goal, and of course we share a coherent (static) vision of what that entails, and know exactly how to get from here to there.”

I was dissatisfied at best with the conversation about redemption vs rehabilitation. I might be more convinced by the distinction if Austin had ever stopped saying “sin”... which, among other things, helps to selectively blur together abuse and other forms of violence. (I’ve given up on even dreaming of a world in which FATT covers its ass better in re: Christian-centric, frankly Catholic-centric readings of both morality and faith, and maybe it’s for the best that they lack the wherewithal to mask that.) That said, I think it’s very striking that Even Gardner’s violence and militarism seems dealt with in-story almost exclusively as a form of trauma and a thing that happens to Even Gardner, while Fourteen’s history with Castlerose is discussed (up to the time of the finale) almost exclusively in terms of Sins Fourteen Committed. I’m not saying those framings are ~flipped, but the ratio does seem off. Even has a fuckton of choices at every step of the way and experiences basically no material repercussions or visible change of heart, other than “once there are no Advent people left I’ll stop targeting Advent.” He’s also, notably, “brought back from the edge” by a played-straight romantic relationship, for some reason. Fourteen has like... half of a narrative about turning bad habits and even obsolete ideas to constructive ends, and half a narrative about reclaiming agency once safely away from your abuser, even at the cost of losing access to huge swathes of your life... but it’s an arc that goes so unacknowledged or unseen by the other characters that it never connects back up to the idea that, well, bound up in the problem of rehabilitation is the problem of forgiveness---or if we don’t like that language, then acceptance. It’s never clear on what terms Fourteen is judged and reintegrated into their community, and how and where their self-image aligns with others’ view of them.

Which is very, very lonely, and raises huge questions for me about the whole issue of Fourteen as ~disability representation and specifically as a test case for what terminal illness might look like in a utopia. It is just not clear what anyone’s goals were, as far as showing Fourteen supported in a systemic way and not just on the level of relationships. It’s very odd. I’m still puzzled by Jack and Austin’s remarks on this, especially the focus on what Jack had or hadn’t done with Fourteen in play. Literally every NPC (who has a stance on the issue at all) responds to Fourteen with undisguised horror at their memory dysfunction---the most sympathetic version of this is a lecture about integrating assistive technology into their daily routine! and the least sympathetic is the point-blank statement that Fourteen not remembering who they’ve killed is worse than killing those people in the first place. Like, what the hell? That’s a vision of morality that is entirely premised on repentance, and on the idea that expiation for a crime only comes with appropriate helpings of guilt. And it never really receives an in-universe challenge.

It was also weird to me that Grand didn’t come up at all in that part of the discussion. But then again it seemed like no one wanted to comment seriously on Grand’s arc in general; maybe Art was making really sad faces on the call or something. It’s a shame though, since you’d think it would be a good opportunity to go on some bullshit about “salvation NOT through good works,” or rather, salvation definitely through good works but everyone feels a little weird about it. Three bombs? Three bombs?

Finally, it is important that I dissect all remarks on shipping. I was a little perturbed by the discussion of Fourteen/Tender; I thought Ali’s IC reasons were perfectly valid but I found Jack’s slightly suspect, because I don’t think, uh, “this person flirts all the time but is too busy dying to pursue new romantic projects” really jives---either with Fourteen’s profound, active engagement with others (more active and deeper engagement the longer the season went on) or with Jack’s stated goal of presenting a dying person who, without being embroiled in regret or bitterness in the face of death, still loves their life. Obviously I don’t think romantic relationships are a requirement for that, but the blanket statement that Fourteen is Not That Person gave me trouble. Also, I just don’t think you can drop the “platonic relationship representation is so important” line in there without a LOT more unpacking of the pros and cons of that---who are the characters involved in that relationship, and are they people for whom nonsexual relationships are a top-of-the-line representation deficit? Also, is nonsexual vs sexual really the paradigm you want to cleave to here, in a discussion of the chemistry between an internet goddess and a hunk of data?

I’m a hypocrite though bc when they got to echogrand and went on about how it was important that Echo’s arc not center on romance I was like RIGHT ON

...

Okay. One more thing. Janine shooting down Signet/Blueberry; I was fond of this, though I obviously do not care about her opinion and will continue to do what I want---I don’t like “parental” as the trajectory for a dynamic whose foundational moment is the younger weaker party saving the older, that doesn’t do it for me. Of course children can save their parents, but they shouldn’t have to, and that certainly shouldn’t be the pattern that defines the relationship. And for Signet and Blueberry I think it really is; Signet offers Blueberry apologies, Blueberry offers Signet things Signet actually needs. That’s not parental. Nevertheless, I was fond bc it made me think about what a wealth of fun mentorship dynamics this season offered otherwise---with Tender and Morning’s Observation, and Fourteen and Sho, there are these really precious internal movements, or moments of slippage, from distrust to empathy and from faith to disillusionment, that I treasured as real, organic, slippery pieces of character writing and of writing about growth... My favorite example of this is when Morning’s Observation is FURIOUS with Tender after the fucking... rooftop debacle early on in the Wind’s Poem arc. And then again, more seriously, later, after he’s been essentially abandoned and has to save the day by drawing on parts of himself he wanted to give up. That feels like a moment of roleswap between “guardian” and “child” that is presented as appropriately bittersweet, pivotal, and rupturing, and which therefore preserves the logic of the original relationship even as it expands it. And I also love Grand’s awkward interference there, haha... esp in the context of Grand managing to disappoint Morning separately later on, when by that point it’s lost most of its oomph just because Morning has learned not to have expectations of these fucking geniuses. Which is its own mixed result.

(I wish there had been a bit more followup with Morning in the finale, actually, I don’t think he really got resolution on some stuff and I think “happy at the Brink with his moms” is more avoidant copout than anything, though not implausible or unreasonable avoidance from a character perspective. But like, the fucking... part in the Feast of Patina where it becomes increasingly apparent, throughout Morning’s glad monologue, that he did, in fact, do many of the same things as Grand? He betrayed former allies for an enemy faction in the name of convenience! That’s not all Grand did, but it’s not nothing. And everyone has to fall back on “but the Advent Group are fascists! Morning didn’t turn coat and join fascists!” when it’s like, well, would he have, if they had offered him spaghetti?

Not that I think Morning’s and Grand’s choices are remotely equivalent. But it was a very funny parallel for them to try to wriggle out of on the fly, and I wish they hadn’t---I wish they’d leaned into Morning’s lingering doubts, which would if anything have served to highlight that he does have good reason to stay. It’s just that those reasons don’t cancel out the doubts.)

[digital-roadmap-management]

What is Modern Enterprise Architecture?

Organizations are affected by major trends, such as the digital transformation, agile practices, and customer-centric operations. As a core practice to enable organizations, Enterprise Architecture must adapt to those trends as well. This article provides insights on key drivers to reinvent the Enterprise Architecture Department.

Adapt to the Increased Speed of Change

Moore´s law stands for the observation that the number of transistors in a device doubles about every two years. The correctness of this observation helps to explain the increasing development speed of numerous technologies, such as storage, processing power, digital resolutions, and others. Hence, the amount of available technologies increases exponentially, while their average lifecycle duration shortens. The result is that Enterprise Architects need to be aware of more different technologies and update their skills and knowledge more frequently. As the capacity of one person is limited, this also implies that the department might need additional resources to deal with the increased requirements.

Another effect of shorter lifecycles and increased speed of change is that planning the future becomes even more difficult and close to impossible. The result is a focus on present architectures and decisions and less focus on planning for a far-away future.

Stronger Collaboration with the Business

In the academic world, the Enterprise Architecture department is located right between business and IT. In real organizations however, the practice is often IT-driven. The shortcoming of this is a week business alignment in terms of strategy and knowledge. This led to IT architectures that were not supporting the business strategy and additional efforts that could have been easily avoided if business had had some architectural awareness. Architects have recently addressed this issue by emphasizing business architecture artifacts of their work, such as business capabilities, user journeys, and value streams.

In addition, the Enterprise Architecture practice is slowly moving towards business. It does so by using Enterprise Architecture tools that business stakeholder can use as well, because they are easy-to-use and provide insights that business is interested in. Also, an increasing number of architects is in business departments, spreading their architectural knowledge and establishing an architectural awareness throughout the department. The result is an Enterprise Architecture practice that is not only closer to the business, but also embedded in actual day-to-day business problems.

Value Delivery in Operations and Projects

The last aspect of the last paragraph is of such an importance that it should be mentioned as a proper topic. While in the past, Enterprise Architects were perceived as people in an ivory tower that do not know anything about the real problems and processes in projects and operations, this slowly changes due to two trends.

The first trend is that it becomes a good practice to provide Enterprise Architects with an additional IT architecture role in operational work. With that, they experience problems and processes directly and can learn and lever solutions in their role as Enterprise Architect across different projects or departments.

The second trend is that the ratio between Enterprise Architects and operationally working architects, such as solution and technology architects, is changing. As mentioned above, the vast amount of rapidly changing technologies requires more architectural resources and those are the ones that are specialized in technologies or solutions. Hence, an increasing number of architects are distributed across the organization and come together in communities instead of sitting centralized in one department with one fix hierarchy.

From Hierarchies to Teams

The move towards a flat hierarchy model that is organized in teams and communities brings several advantages that Enterprise Architecture requires in order to address its challenges. While in the past, skills were mainly acquired through the participation in trainings and through academic ways, the new focus lays on architects that actively share their knowledge and skills across their teams.

However, this can only be achieved if the organization achieves to establish a community of Enterprise Architects that like their work and that are intrinsically motivated to learn more and upskill themselves. Moving from hierarchies to teams is a very good start to achieve this.

Adaption of an Agile Working Model

While large parts of IT are already working in agile ways, the Enterprise Architecture Department has been dragging behind. As a result, approaches, methods, and tools are often not at all lean or agile. With today´s standards, they are perceived outdated, cumbersome, and impedimental. How to modernize this state is probably one of the most discussed topics in today´s global Enterprise Architecture community and many organizations, consultancies, and authors try to find answers to that question.

While I have not seen one best solution to this challenge, I believe that the answer is a sum of many different ideas and approaches that already exist. For example, a Kanban board and daily standups can be helpful to organize the development of an architecture work, and the lean portfolio management concept should be considered when it comes to managing the demand management. Also, a retrospective paired with a Fuckup Night can be beneficial to share knowledge and best practices across the community. A community could then be organized in guilds as described by the Spotify model.

In the end, everything that helps the Enterprise Architecture practice to become leaner, deal better with uncertainties, new trends, and shorter release cycles can be worth a try.