The night I wanted to show off by turning my own article into a Japanese language test

1:00 AM.
I was at my computer, turning my own article into
a Japanese language test.

The cause is AI.
No, to be more precise,
it's because I wanted to show off.

Shusaku Endo
wrote a story teasing the fact that
when he tried taking a Japanese language test based on his own work, he couldn't solve it at all.

Yoshinori Shimizu
teased such Japanese language tests
as a parody.

In short, both of them
were poking fun at the ridiculous parts
of Japanese language tests.

So, I wanted to try it too.
The reason is,
I wanted to show off by doing the same thing as a great author and a master of parody.

I put my articles
all into the NotebookLM source.

And I had it create 10 reading comprehension questions and answers each
for junior high school students and high school students.

I was in a pretty good mood at that point.
Even though nothing had happened yet,
I felt like I had stepped
into a slightly more literary realm.

The first one that came up was the story about the sword.
The story where a sword appeared from the storage room,
I started dreaming of getting rich quick on my own,
and was disappointed on my own.

NotebookLM
interpreted it like this.

“It is a psychology of softening mental damage by objectifying the sense of loss of a non-existent asset as a self-directed act, and turning the absurdity into laughter.”

Wait a minute.

Suddenly, I’ve become
a very hurt, delicate person.

That’s not it.

At that time, I was more like,
just getting excited in the corner of the room on my own,
and feeling down on my own.
It was the same level of intensity as thinking you won the lottery,
only to find out you didn't.
Admittedly, I was quite disappointed.
But to call that a sense of loss or
mental damage is
completely wrong.

Next was the story about the reason for absence.

The story where, when I had AI come up with excuses to take time off work, I felt a strange sense of energy that the world of excuses is vast and humanity can still take more breaks.

NotebookLM
interpreted it like this.

“Realizing that I was only limiting the reasons myself, I discovered that countless possibilities still exist.”

I wish you would stop.

Suddenly, I'm being made to look like someone who has awakened to their potential.

But that's not it.

I'm not looking forward with such optimism. It's hard to take time off for apple pie, but easy to take time off for a trip. I just wanted to poke a little fun at that strange atmosphere in the workplace.

Yes. It was as if NotebookLM's interpretation was like an educational program.

It took what I wrote half-jokingly, accepted it seriously, and turned it into a respectable answer.

NotebookLM even properly reproduced the ridiculous parts of a reading comprehension test.

But in that moment, I became one step closer to being mentally invincible.

Finally, I have become the kind of person who is troubled by being interpreted in a nice way by a reading comprehension question.

Invincible. The strongest.

Perhaps this is what I wanted to do. To write something in jest, only to have someone read it later with complete seriousness, interpret it beautifully, and feel a little troubled by it.

Human feelings are not that simple. While getting excited on my own, I am also cold-headed somewhere. While feeling disappointed, I am also finding it a little amusing. While mocking it, I am also feeling a little saved.

Reading comprehension tests and NotebookLM take those messy things and neatly straighten them into a single line.

That night, as I had NotebookLM read my article, I felt that although I am far from the literary talent of great writers or masters of parody, at least I had moved a little closer to the side of those who are troubled by being read in a strangely noble way by a reading comprehension test.

It's a rather strange direction, but I was quite satisfied.

I can show off.

That is what I thought.