RUNPOINT
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.

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From the issueSeven pieces, free to read in full
Collage: hands turning the pages of an old almanac, with green and red blocks of colourLetterThe 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 minCollage: an hourglass beside a dotted decay curveEssayHalf-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 minCollage: an early factory floor driven by overhead line shafts and beltsHistoryGroup 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 minCollage: a classical marble bust in thought against a green circleEssayArm 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 minArchival photograph: the Wright Flyer's first powered flight at Kill Devil Hills, December 17, 1903EssayWhen 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 minCollage: a crowd at the foot of a green triangle, with one ladder rising toward a red sunEssaySecondhandAndrej 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 minPhotograph: a brass barometer on a dark green wallStanding 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 HallPrint08The Turning RadiusThe EditorsPrint09The Down PaymentMatthew Hall talks with Alvin WongPrint
11The Ninety-Day ReviewPrint12For the Long QuarterThe EditorsPrint13Questions 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.

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