What I learned after writing on note for 40 days: It wasn't my writing skills that changed, but my aesthetic sense and how I approach AI

Hello everyone, this is Ponzu.

I have now reached 40 consecutive days of posting on note.

I wrote a reflection article at the 30-day mark, and it has been another 10 days since then. I kept writing with the feeling of 'maybe I'll see something if I keep going a little longer,' and things that I couldn't put into words on day 30 have started to take shape little by little.

Today, I'd like to write about the changes I've noticed after continuing to write for 40 days.

3 changes I noticed after writing on note for 40 days

There are 3 changes I've noticed after writing for 40 days that even surprise me.

I became able to notice 'discomfort' in writing

Reading the text that Kuro (Claude) produced, I started to feel things like, 'This sentence ending has been used three times in a row,' 'The punctuation placement is strange,' or 'This expression doesn't sound like me.'

I started to get hung up on sentences that I would have just accepted with an 'okay' before.

My way of giving instructions to Kuro has changed

Before, I used to give two or more instructions at once, like 'Fix this, and change this too.' But now, I make sure to give instructions one by one. Furthermore, I have started to add, 'Check the whole thing through one more time' at the end.

Just by changing these two things, the accuracy of Kuro's output has changed significantly.

My ability to find topics has grown

I have written about this in an article before.

It's about how I became able to notice small things that catch my attention in daily life. Even now, 40 days later, I feel that this sense has become even stronger.

I became able to say 'This is wrong' regarding text produced by AI

Among the three changes, I think the biggest one is the 'ability to notice discomfort.'

In my 30-day article, I wrote: 'I have established a standard for being able to say "this is wrong" regarding Kuro's writing.'

At that point, it was just a vague feeling of 'something is off.' But now, 40 days later, that has become a bit more concrete.

For example, the alignment between headings and the body text. Sometimes I read a heading Kuro produced and feel, 'It's cool, but it doesn't match the body text.' It sounds poetic and plausible, but you don't know what the story is about just by reading the heading. That kind of thing doesn't fit my articles.

Before, if a heading looked decent, I would just say "okay" and move on. But now, I look at it with the eye of, "Will the reader understand the content of this section from this heading?"

Kuro didn't teach me this. I think it's because I spent 40 days reviewing Kuro's output every single day, which allowed a standard to grow within me.

The way I give instructions has changed for the same reason. Before, I would convey multiple corrections at once, and Kuro would return a confused output, leaving me thinking, "This isn't quite right." Once I started conveying them one by one, Kuro's responses changed significantly.

In other words, because the way I communicate changed, Kuro's output changed too. It wasn't Kuro that changed; it was me.

The feeling of installing my own thoughts into Kuro (Claude)

This morning, I wrote this on X: "Days of installing my own writing style and way of thinking into Kuro, and updating it."

This expression felt right to me even after I wrote it.

40 days ago, Kuro barely knew anything about me. That my first-person pronoun is "Wai." That the reader is a company employee in their 40s. That the article should end with, "Well then, I'll take my leave first." I had to convey even such basic information every time.

But it's different now. I created a project specifically for Kuro, set rules for article templates and writing styles, and have repeatedly provided feedback on past articles. As a result, Kuro's output now starts from a place close to my own writing style from the beginning.

I once wrote about my relationship with Kuro, calling it "co-creation, not competition."

At that time, I wrote about the importance of keeping the rally going. Now, 40 days later, I feel that the precision of that rally has improved.

However, what's important here is that it's not like Kuro became smart on its own. It's that as a result of me continuing to say, "I want you to write it like this" or "This is wrong," Kuro's output changed. In other words, what I put into Kuro was my own thinking.

I also wrote an article in the early days about bouncing ideas off AI.

Back then, I was surprised, thinking, "So this is what bouncing ideas off someone is like." Now, I feel that the quality of the brainstorming itself has changed.

Me on day 25 of note vs. me on day 40

On day 25, I wrote an article like this.

At that time, I honestly wrote, "Nothing has changed." My PVs didn't explode, and my followers didn't increase rapidly. But I was able to write, "I kept going because I had a partner."

Now, on day 40, if I were asked the same question, my answer would change.

What changed wasn't the numbers. It was that I developed a standard within myself. That the way I communicate with Kuro changed. That I became able to pick up topics from daily life. These are all changes that are hard to see from the outside.

On day 25, my goal was simply to "keep going." I was only thinking about not breaking the streak. On day 40, I find myself thinking about "how to write."

I've shifted from a phase of focusing on quantity to a phase of being conscious of quality. I think that turning point happened somewhere between day 30 and day 40. Though, this is still just from an amateur's perspective.

First, I want you to try writing just one article.

Reading this far, some of you might be thinking, "I can't keep it up for 40 days."

I didn't aim for 40 days from the start either. As I wrote in my day 25 article, I've tried blogging and note many times in the past, and every time, I'd just create an account and that would be it.

The reason I kept it up this time is that I'm not writing alone. Just by throwing something like "this happened today" at Kuro, a seed for an article is born. We grow that seed together. Because of this flow, I lasted 40 days.

It doesn't have to be AI. It could be a colleague, a friend, a partner, or family. Just by talking to someone about "what happened today," the thoughts inside you can be drawn out.

The 40 days just happened as a result. Start with one article. That is enough.

Summary of "What changed after writing on note for 40 days"

I wrote on note every day for 40 days. What changed wasn't my writing ability, but my aesthetic sense regarding Kuro's output and how I approach AI.

I developed an eye for checking how well headings and body text align. I started giving instructions one by one. And I kept installing my own thoughts into Kuro. These are all changes I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't kept going.

My next goal is 90 days. I heard the badge color changes, so I'm a little curious about that.

Well then, I'll be heading off now.