I must admit, I didn't think Jon would be so self-critical. Let alone make it public. But after his his first massive failure as lead designer it is perhaps a necessary step to redeem himself and his future products. And we mustn't forget, the guy is still young and has a lot to learn, as he says himself. The good thing is, he shows he is willing to do so. Which is a valuable ability in itself.
In developing ATG, he seems to have recognized and eliminated many of his previous mistakes. I like what he says about diplomacy, and the unit supply feature sounds promising. He also seems to have understood why both 1UPT and global happiness don't work well in 4x games. He even has abolished social policies in favor of civics.
I'm more critical towards some other aspects he mentions however, most notably the UI, which he is "particularly proud of". This is baffeling in view of an UI that takes up several times more space and requires a lot more clicks than necessary. And calling the use of the slider "boring busy work" shows a serious lack of understanding of the entire feature, as, if anything, it makes things a lot easier.
But all in all, he seems to have learnt his lesson. It's ashame that Civ 5 had to serve as his training grounds, but after reading the article I am definitely more confident about his future releases.
