Issue Two of Runpoint, Half-Lives: a perfect-bound magazine lying closed, its page block visible

Issue Two · Q4 2026

Half-Lives

How to think ahead when the ground moves every ninety days.

Order the print edition, $20 Read three pieces

A quarterly in print for people who run companies in the middle of the economy and want to think further ahead than the news allows. Written by people who build and deploy AI systems inside those companies. We publish what we expect to still be true in ninety days, and we say so when we are guessing.

From the issueSeven pieces, free to read in full

Collage: hands turning the pages of an old almanac, with green and red blocks of colour

LetterThe Wrong UnitIn April Runpoint adopted quarterly goals. By August most of them had been abandoned, and by October the firm had moved to two-week commitments. Sam’s letter explains why a quarter turned out to be too long for a promise and about the right length for judgment.Sam Gaddis, Editor · Listen · 7 min

Collage: an hourglass beside a dotted decay curve

EssayHalf-LivesMost of what executives track about AI, from model rankings to vendor features, goes stale within weeks. A few things keep their value for years: a written account of how the business runs, the company’s own data, the judgment of its best people. The essay sorts the two and proposes a quarterly review for each.Sam Gaddis · Listen · 21 min

Collage: an early factory floor driven by overhead line shafts and belts

HistoryGroup DriveAmerican factories had electric motors for forty years before productivity rose, because owners bolted them onto buildings laid out around a single steam-driven shaft. The gains came when factories were rebuilt around the new power. Matthew asks what plays the part of that shaft in a company adopting AI, and argues it is the chain of human handoffs and rented software most firms are organized around.Matthew Hall · Listen · 21 min

Collage: a classical marble bust in thought against a green circle

EssayArm the FewWhy giving every employee an AI license mostly multiplies the judgment already there, and how to pick the few people who should get unlimited access first.Sam Gaddis · Listen · 13 min

Archival photograph: the Wright Flyer's first powered flight at Kill Devil Hills, December 17, 1903

EssayWhen Everything Becomes BuildableAI has made almost any tool cheap to start. Ryan Mish, an operator engineer at Runpoint, argues the scarce skill is now finishing one and getting it to the people it was for: a first release someone can do real work with, before the next idea arrives.Ryan Mish · Listen · 5 min

Collage: a crowd at the foot of a green triangle, with one ladder rising toward a red sun

EssaySecondhandAndrej Karpathy sketched a funnel of who has seen what AI can do, from six billion people who have barely touched it down to about five thousand. Most executives learn about AI from reports passed up through that funnel, and the essay argues the habit is getting expensive. It ends with three ways to get a firsthand read without becoming an engineer.The Editors · Listen · 17 min

Photograph: a brass barometer on a dark green wall

Standing assumptionsWhat We Are AssumingTen working assumptions about AI and mid-sized companies that we plan against for the next year, each paired with the evidence that would make us drop it.The Editors · Listen · 7 min

Issue Two open to the first spread of the essay Half-Lives, the page block visible at the fore-edge

Seven by ten inches · Perfect bound · Uncoated paper · Every piece opens on a full page of art, then a single-column lede and two columns of text

Only in printSix more pieces, on paper only

03Stale by Month TwoSam Gaddis and Matthew HallPrint 08The Turning RadiusThe EditorsPrint 09The Down PaymentMatthew Hall talks with Alvin WongPrint

11The Ninety-Day ReviewPrint 12For the Long QuarterThe EditorsPrint 13Questions We GetThe EditorsPrint

Issue Two of Runpoint, photographed from above

The print edition

Made to be read away from a screen, and passed around a leadership team.

Thirteen pieces, six of them only on paper, including twelve questions to bring to your next offsite. Twenty dollars, shipping in the US included.

Order Issue Two

A printed copy of Runpoint Issue One on a desk

Issue One · Early 2026 · Sold out

The Operator Issue

Read the articles