[Why I am starting a note membership] Where are your own "words" and "thoughts"?

I decided that this year would be a year of input, and since the end of last year, I have been reading books and attending various seminars. Among them, lectures on themes like mastering AI, starting with ChatGPT, are truly proliferating, and there are many that could make you feel anxious if you choose the wrong ones.
For example, in many cases, the content is aimed solely at "making money in no time," such as “Sell an article completed in 5 minutes using AI for X yen and earn X yen per month!” and while I don't know if it's a "setup," most of the comments notified during the lecture are very excited about that content, and I feel a sense of "frenzy," for better or worse, as if everyone is aiming for a chance at a one-shot reversal.

There is no doubt that this year is an important year for humans regarding how to use AI.

It is certainly a wonderful evolution to be able to complete in 5 minutes what used to take a vast amount of time, and it is an undeniable fact that it has accuracy and is dozens of times better than content created by unmotivated people.

But what is scary is not that humans will be taken over by AI like in the movies, but that content created solely with the motivation of "wanting to make money" will be mass-produced
and the chain of hollow emotions and frenzy that arises among those who see it without thinking deeply, such as assumptions and biased values. When I was born, the bubble had already mostly burst, but perhaps this year, 2025, which is called the AI era, is seeing something like an emotional bubble beginning to occur in proportion to the amount of information that can be visualized.

an emotional bubble I think. While it is said that a great era of unemployment will come with the evolution of AI...!, the economic disparity that may occur there is seen as a problem precisely because it appears clearly in numbers, and measures such as systems and subsidies will be taken, but

because loneliness and the loss of identity cannot be quantified like finance, people who are lost in their thoughts, such as "I don't understand my own feelings," "I keep looking for the right answer that should be somewhere," "I can't organize my thoughts and put them into words," and "for some reason, my worries never end," will be mass-produced and furthermore, because they are surrounded by beautifully crafted, hollow, and correct arguments, I think it even creates the illusion that they are the only ones falling into that state.

Rather than worrying about the future being taken over by AI, I think we should worry more than anything about our own thoughts being taken over. Because that is the real takeover.

At the end of the year, I received a DM on Instagram.

Since I have my settings configured so that DMs from people I don't follow are sorted into a separate box, I miss most of them, but the moment this one caught my eye, I thought, "I have to reply," and although some time had already passed, I replied in a hurry.

I couldn't write much, but after this, the person who sent the DM was able to successfully talk with their partner, and they gave me permission to quote it, saying they are now living their pregnancy while continuing their married life. (Thank goodness...!)

Anyway, in a situation where no one knows what the right answer is, it was incredibly frustrating that they already had their own feelings, which are one of the few guidelines, but couldn't put them into words. Because a life was involved, I wanted to do something about it.

The reason I often receive these kinds of DMs suddenly is probably because for 7 years until 2024, I had a serialized column answering consultation requests called “The Editor-in-Chief Answers” on our own media, NEXTWEEKEND.
Last year, when deciding on the direction the company would take, we chose to suspend the web magazine, so unfortunately, this series also ended.

The number of people who have sent consultations to this advice corner so far is a total of about 2,000 people. Since many of them arrive after midnight, it was also turned into a book with the title " Midnight Alleyway for the Desperate."

And, about 3 months since stopping this corner.
What happened is that not only did I receive more consultations via DM as mentioned above, but surprisingly, it became harder for me to see what I was thinking myself.

These past 3 months, it's not like I haven't been doing anything. I've increased my conversations and encounters, and if anything, I think I've been more conscious of input than before. Even so, this feeling that something is missing is because drawing out my own thoughts by being close to someone else's worries and then turning them into words was an output style I had been doing until 3 months ago, and I think I needed that.

Thoughts and words are like muscle training. Just as there is no way to maintain the strongest body without doing anything, there is no such thing as "thoughts you've finally reached."
Only by thinking every day, making an effort to understand someone's intentions, examining them, and putting them into words yourself, do your thoughts become clear and your words become your own.

Thinking about how I feel this keenly myself, and how correct arguments that contain no one's thoughts (in some cases) will proliferate due to AI in the future, I wanted to create a place where, while creating opportunities for readers to think, everyone can regain their own "thoughts" and "words."

The book I published last year called " Life is a Picnic," thankfully, was reprinted about 5 times in about a month after its release. It is truly a grateful thing that such a thick, non-genre book, which is hard to categorize, has reached so many people.

The keyword for this book is this one sentence.

It sounds simple, but it's surprisingly difficult. If it were a picnic, you would just choose your belongings according to the weather and prepare so that you and those close to you can enjoy it, but when it comes to life, for some reason, you change your choices by worrying about the eyes of others, and you lose sight of your own words and thoughts amidst a massive amount of information.

It is such a waste.

The other day, my 7-year-old daughter asked me, “Mom, what's the difference between ‘love’ and ‘like’?” and I made a note of the answer that came to me immediately.

And then, I asked AI about it too.
Since I have had it read my books and columns, when I instruct it to "be like Moe Murakami," it gives me a perfect answer that is almost like my own.

It's incredibly convenient and almost perfect.

I'm tempted to just say, "Well, this is good enough." But that scares me. Everyone is starting to say,
"Well, this is good enough. The answer is right there! I don't need to spend time thinking anymore...!"That era is not just around the corner; we are already deeply immersed in it without even realizing it.

That is precisely why, if we don't think about how we engage with it before using it,I strongly feel the danger that we will see an increase in people who are lost in their own thoughts, unable to make choices without consulting a fortune teller every time.

With this era as a premise, on note, for myself and for those who read my work, in order to freely and enjoyably create a life like a picnic,
Picnic Lab. - A Laboratory for Words and Thoughts -I would like to do the following under this title.

✔︎Answers to worries you can't tell anyone, such as human relationships, yourself, work styles, marital relationships, and parenting (The top 5 most common topics in my previous series of about 200 Q&A sessions were "decision-making," "partnerships," "parenting," "work," and "affairs.")
✔︎Commentary on the thought process that led to the answers, like an audio commentary
✔︎How to use words to make communication smoother
✔︎Thinking techniques to make tomorrow something to look forward to
✔︎Feelings behind the scenes of work and business that I can't say on social media
✔︎How to use AI for "ordinary" people, not just for work, etc...

Since there's no time like the present, I'm starting small for now.
In these harsh times, I want this to be a Lab where people who share a sense of awareness about the same issues and have common ground or empathy can gather. Therefore, I intend to write in a closed format using the note membership feature. However, I would like to make January a free pre-open period, so I would be happy if you could read it. After that, I set the price at 600 yen per month, thinking that it would be comfortable for people to continue, like buying "a latte to remember" each month.

Click here to register for membership

I look forward to your continued support.