This was supposed to be about testing.Instead, it turned into a conversation about burnout, money, leadership, community, AI, and what it actually takes to build a sustainable life in tech.Richard and Vernon kick off 2026 reflecting on what they’re changing, what they’re rebuilding, and how testing and quality fit into a future shaped by intention rather than hustle.

Links to stuff we mentioned during the pod:

05:19 - The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
14:59 - The $1k Challenge by Ali Abdaal Vernon took part in last year
17:23 - The video from Daniel Pink on how to have a successful year
- Here's where Daniel talks about having a Challenger Network (but the whole video is 😙🤌🏾)
18:46 - Toby Sinclair
- Toby's website
- Toby's LinkedIn
19:24 - Keith Klain
- Keith's blog
- Keith's podcast
- Keith's LinkedIn
19:25 - Agile Testing Days conference
35:45 - What is Model Drift?
41:06 - Glue work
- Tanya's Glue Work presentation which you can read or watch
- Vernon's talk about how glue work impacts Quality Engineers, Testers, etc.
48:06 - Gary "GaryVee" Vaynerchuk
- Gary's website
- Gary's YouTube

00:00 - Intro

00:54 - Greetings & where have we been?

01:32 - The holidays

02:34 - Rest & mood

04:00 - Routines for success

05:59 - Push-up challenge!

08:35 - Dopamine detox

10:28 - THE EPISODE BEGINS!

10:29 - What are our personal 2026 themes (rather than resolutions)?

10:59 - Rich's 2026 themes

13:10 - Vern's themes

17:58 - Friendship, loneliness, and being the initiator

21:28 - Rich has a two itches. One about writing...

21:56 - ...and another about hats

25:23 - Vern's leadership focus and testing foundations

31:06 - AI work: data mindset, agents, and the vibe coding divide

40:11 - Rant about AI testing being stuck in the past

46:37 - Do "cool" shit and "talk" about it. How to stand out from AI Slop

50:10 - Our podcast themes for 2026