Saurav Insight

In Field Note #2, Saurav Sharma explores the "Attention Leak"—the invisible gap between why we pick up our phones and where our attention actually ends up. Drawing on observations from the Algorithm Audit Beta alongside behavioural science, this episode examines why screen time alone fails to explain lost focus, procrastination, and professional misalignment. Join the ongoing Algorithm Audit field...

The Phantom Effect: Opening the Algorithm Audit Beta Last month, I ran a small pilot study with seven professionals in the UK. Five completed it. Two dropped out. One participant gained back seven hours in a single week. Another became aware of how much of their attention was being consumed by content they had never consciously chosen to follow. But the most surprising result came from someone who...

Season 1 Finale: This episode is available both as an essay and a podcast. The written version expands on several themes from the audio conversation. In the Season 1 finale of The Drill, Saurav reflects on what has been built so far — from the algorithm audit research and workshop proposals to Clarity Designed and the frontyard philosophy behind the project. This episode explores the tension betwe...

Recently, I completed a 72-hour water fast after spending several weeks transitioning through One Meal A Day (OMAD), reducing sugars and carbohydrates, and preparing for the challenge. As people around me became aware of what I was doing, the questions started arriving. Why 72 hours? What exactly is autophagy? Why didn't you ask a doctor? Isn't trusting AI dangerous? What role did mild fatty liver...

Recovery is rarely dramatic. In this episode, I reflect on two parallel recoveries — one in Nepal and one in London — and the quiet reconstruction that happened between them. From my granduncle’s training sessions and rooftop wellness experiments during lockdown, to night-shift recruitment work, migration, AI-assisted writing and the creation of this podcast itself, this episode explores how rebui...

For years, I thought I was failing because I lacked focus. But the real problem was deeper: I could see the bigger picture, yet I couldn’t hold it alone. In this episode of The Drill, I reflect on the years of momentum without presence — from policy think tanks and national workshops in Nepal to the fog of drifting through meaningful work without internal structure. I talk about arriving in London...

In this episode, I explore the hidden pattern behind my early ventures — from an unfinished agro-tourism farm to repeated attempts at building spaces for nature, ideas, and conversation. What looked like separate failures slowly revealed a deeper truth: I was not building random projects, but trying to recreate a sense of “home” in different forms. Through journaling and reflection, I began to see...

The Mind Wanders. That’s the Point: Meditation, Attention, and Clarity Most people give up on meditation for the same reason —their mind won’t stop wandering. But what if that’s not failure? In this episode, I share a personal journey into meditation, attention, and mental clarity — from struggling with overthinking to understanding how awareness actually works. This is not a guide to sitting stil...

In this episode, I talk about a pattern I couldn't see for years — how I kept surrendering completely to magnetic, powerful people and drifting on their energy instead of my own. I trace the slow accumulation of losses that finally forced a shift: the dark phase, the mirror moment on social media, the thirteen days in a Covid ward with my father, and arriving in London with two suitcases and nothi...

Inside it are dozens of folders, startup names, and logos I obsessed over designing. Every one of them started with a burst of excitement. And every one of them died. I ghosted them all. When the initial excitement faded, and the unglamorous heavy lifting began, I quietly walked away. Even now, as I build this exact platform, I have a lingering anxiety: Is Saurav Insight just going to be another g...

In my last post, I critiqued our political leaders for acting like bulldozer operators instead of structural engineers. I wrote that action without a blueprint isn’t engineering; it’s just theatre. I stand by that critique. But if I am going to demand a national blueprint, I have to be brutally honest about my own. It is easy to look at a mayor and demand system design. It is much harder to look i...

The Structural Engineer vs. The Bulldozer: Why "Action" is Not EnoughI haven’t watched the news in six weeks. Stepping out of the daily noise allowed me to see something clearly: We are so excited about changing the faces in Nepali politics that we haven't noticed the foundation is collapsing. In this episode, I offer a structural critique of Mayor Balen Shah—not as a politician, but as a fellow s...

The Algorithm is a Garden: Be the Gardener, or You Will Be the Weed I tried to "hack" my wife’s phone to teach her English. The algorithm ignored me and gave her Mutton Curry instead. When I checked my own phone, I didn't find food—I found Rage. In this episode, I break down the "Algorithm Audit": a personal experiment to go from "cognitively congested" to clear-headed. We explore how digital nois...

To make these insights accessible to you while I juggle a full-time job and a baby in London, this episode uses AI-generated audio (via Aipodify) to turn my written essay into a conversational listening experience. In this episode, we cover: Intro & The 3 Big Questions Question 1: Are you making money? (The reality of the "Side Hustle" trap) Question 2: What is your niche? (Why am I in the niche?)...

I didn’t start this detox because I was virtuous. I started it because I had relapsed. My journey with “political detox” actually began years ago, back in Nepal during the COVID lockdown. I realised then how toxic the cycle was, and for a long time, I managed a “soft detox.” I avoided the fights. I focused on my life. But recently, the dam broke.|It started simmering with the rising intensity of t...

My “soft detox” from Nepali politics started a few years ago, back when I was still in Nepal. It was a conscious act of self-preservation. I looked at my life and saw that my peers were building careers and families. I was in my late 30s, unmarried, and my career was stalled. Why? Because I was spending 100% of my emotional budget on politics. I stopped reacting on social media. I stopped the dail...

Today, I'm sharing a piece of my past that feels more relevant than ever: an audio from a 2022 radio program called "lau na aba ta kehi garau," which translates to "let's do something now." Please note that I have edited the audio to remove all advertisements and only kept the interview portion. In this interview, I joined the discussion as a young entrepreneur with a vision to create a wellness c...