Hello!
It’s Thursday, 5th March 2026. Welcome back to Bold Efforts.
This one is short. I just want to share one thing that clarified itself for me.
I’ve lived in Dubai for about a decade. It’s a city that runs on momentum. People plan in years, build in decades, move fast and then move faster. Even leisure feels productive.
The US and Israel went to war with Iran. Iran hit back. And suddenly the region felt close in a way it usually doesn’t. Not in a dramatic, cinematic way. In a plain, everyday way.
People started checking their phones in the middle of sentences. Plans became “let’s see”. Everyone kept showing up, but you could sense the extra alertness under the surface, like the whole city was listening for the next update.
I had my own version of it too. I checked headlines at odd hours. I replied to messages faster than usual, like speed could protect the people I care about. It wasn’t fear in a clean, dramatic sense. It was my body quietly shifting into stay-ready mode and monitor the situation.
Although physically I was completely safe psychologically things changed. It became difficult to focus on important work without getting distracted.
I realized stability is a prerequisite for work. Not for great work. For work, full stop.
We’ve spent years debating the future of work: AI, remote, four-day weeks, office mandates, pay transparency. All real. All worth debating. But every one of those conversations assumes something we almost never name.
That tomorrow will be reasonably normal.
That you can make a plan and trust the world to hold still long enough for it to matter.
That effort has a fair chance of compounding.
When that assumption is intact, you can think in careers, not just days. You can take long bets. You can build patiently. You can tolerate short-term discomfort because you trust the long-term arc.
When it weakens, everything shifts. You stop asking what should i build? You start asking what can i protect?
And you realize the future of work isn’t one future. It’s many, depending on where you are standing when things get loud.
For a while, we told ourselves geography was fading. Remote work made it feel true. But geography never went away. It just got quiet.
Because even the most “portable” job still rests on physical reality. Borders. Airspace. Banking rails. Power grids. Data centers. Public safety. The ability to move when you need to, and stay when you want to.
Same internet, same ambition, completely different ground.
If you’re feeling unsettled right now, I want you to hear this without judgment.
Your unease is not a personal failure. It’s not a productivity problem. It’s not you being weak. It’s information.
It’s your system registering that the world is asking for extra vigilance. That’s a sane response to an unstable week.
So don’t try to “out-focus” it. Steady one thing. Do one practical thing that reduces a real risk. Have one normal conversation with someone you love. Finish one small piece of work, not to hustle, just to remind yourself you still have agency. Give yourself more room than your pride wants to allow.
Humans stay intact in uncertain times not through perfect predictions, but through small, sane steps that create options.
That’s enough for this week. Take care.
Best,
Kartik
I write Bold Efforts every week to think clearly about where work and life are actually headed, not where headlines say they are. If you want these essays in your inbox, you can subscribe here.