Warrior, Mage, Priest, Merchant

Treating leadership like an RPG

Jun 14 • Jim Hughes

February 2026

The Black Hole of Engineering Spend

In the relentless corporate grind, R&D budgets transform into black holes as engineering costs escape scrutiny. We're desperately chasing innovation…

Feb 20 • Jim Hughes

November 2025

What is your next great regret?

Chasing dreams is a seductive trap that keeps us anchored in unfulfilled aspirations. We lament lost time while trapped in comfortable routines…

Nov 23, 2025 • Jim Hughes

October 2025

27 Lessons from 8 Years of Management

Today marks my 8th consecutive year in management, and with it I’m taking a couple-month sabbatical as an individual contributor.

Oct 6, 2025 • Jim Hughes

March 2024

Passion in the Workplace

The zombie apocalypse is real and you can find it at work

Mar 10, 2024 • Jim Hughes

November 2020

Talking About Trade-offs

You can’t make it more than 1 paragraph/slide/minute into a piece of media discussing microservices without encountering admonitions to “carefully…

Nov 29, 2020 • Jim Hughes

April 2020

What I Learned Creating Junction

Syncing GitHub Markdown with Confluence

Apr 9, 2020 • Jim Hughes

March 2020

The Privilege of Vulnerability

After nearly a year of silence, I'm launching my blog, confronting my ego and fear of exposure. It was never about how others perceive me, but the…

Mar 31, 2020 • Jim Hughes