People ask me how to start on note, but the truth is that note just happened to be the place where I could let my inner self out
Hello, this is Ponzu.
Now that Golden Week has started, I've been idly looking through my list of note articles.
These are articles I've been updating every day for over 80 days. Some have nearly 30 likes, while others stopped at 2 or 3. But looking at them, I realized something. The articles I personally 'like' the most are the ones where I wrote what I actually wanted to write, rather than the ones with the most likes.
Recently, I've been asked more often, 'How did you start on note?' If asked, I can answer how to start and how to keep going. But the real answer inside me is much simpler. note just happened to be the place where I could let my inner self out. Today, I'm going to write about that 'inner' side.
The winter of 2025, when my PowerPoint side hustle disappeared and I almost became a know-how collector again
I retired from my PowerPoint side hustle when NanobananaPro was released in November 2025.
From March to October 2025, I had been steadily working as a document creation assistant on CrowdWorks for nine months. I had finally reached a point where I was consistently earning tens of thousands of yen a month. Then, in an era where anyone can create beautiful slides with AI, I thought, 'Ah, this is the end.' Even though I had spent 10 years as a know-how collector and failed at everything, this was the way of earning money I had finally found...
I wrote about the circumstances of how my side hustle disappeared in detail here before.
And... I thought I was going to go back to being a know-how collector again. Reselling, product sales, blogging, cryptocurrency... I had failed at everything I tried, and now I was back to square one. Honestly, at that time, I was thinking, 'Maybe that's enough.'
I lost sight of myself while chasing amazing people on X
In December 2025, I restarted X. I decided to change my focus to AI and try again.
There were many amazing people on the X timeline. People with tens of thousands of followers, seven-figure monthly incomes, and those who were suddenly going viral with AI-related posts. While watching them, I started wanting to aim for that too. I have 6,100 followers now. I want to reach 10,000. Thinking that, I tried to look a little better, a little more amazing, and a little bigger.
...But the more I did it, the more painful it became.
Every time I wrote a post, the first thing I thought was, 'Will this get impressions?' Even though I was supposed to be writing in my own words, I felt like I was tracing someone else's format. At the time, I was paying for Gemini and having it draft posts for me, but the text that came out was 'Well, it sounds plausible.' It looked impressive, but it wasn't my own voice.
In reality, I just wanted to honestly talk about the fact that I only have a high school diploma and have an inferiority complex about my education, that I felt safe hanging out with people of the same background when I was in my hometown, and that I hated the idea of giving up and enduring until retirement without ever taking a shot. I just wanted to talk about those gritty things.
But when I was chasing numbers on X, I felt like those kinds of stories 'looked weak,' so I couldn't share them.
I wanted to lay everything bare: my education complex, my six job changes, and my history as a know-how collector
When I was chasing numbers on X, I was only thinking about 'how to present myself.'
But speaking from the heart, what I really wanted to do was the exact opposite. Not to embellish, but to lay it all bare. That I only have a high school diploma and have an education complex. That I've changed jobs six times. That I've spent 10 years as a know-how collector, giving up on reselling, product sales, and blogging halfway through.
It’s not that I wanted to tell a rags-to-riches story.
It is true that I went from being a high school graduate to a manager at a listed Prime Market company. I am also in charge of AI promotion. From the outside, it might look like a "reversal of fortune." But to me, it wasn’t such a clean-cut story. I crawled along the ground, failed many times, and yet I kept thinking, "I don’t want to just give up and endure this until retirement." That’s all there is to it.
Rather than wanting to tell someone, I wanted to let out what was inside me. I think I always had this feeling that I wanted to properly put into words the things I had kept bottled up for so long.
When I started writing long-form posts with Kuro, I found a "place to write"
In January 2026, I started paying for a subscription to Claude (Kuro).
It started when I saw posts on X saying that Claude Code and Opus 4.6 were amazing. Until then, I had been using Gemini, but the quality of the Japanese was mediocre. It might have been because my prompts were bad, but the text that came back never really felt like "my own words."
When I started using Kuro, my first impression was, "This is useless."
ChatGPT and Gemini would guess what I meant even if I threw a rough prompt at them, saying, "You probably mean this, right?" But Kuro doesn’t guess. It doesn’t read between the lines. It asks me one by one, "What is this?" or "What do you mean by that specifically?"
Wow, what a pain. I honestly thought that at first.
But because it asks, I answer. To answer, I recall my own experiences. As I remembered them and put them into words, I realized, "Wait... my thoughts are getting organized." And when I read back the finished text, I thought, "Hmm? This sounds like me." It was completely different from the feeling I got when using Gemini, which was "it sounds like something, but I don't know whose writing it is."
Maybe I can say everything I want to say this way.
The moment I thought that, I wanted a place where I could write without worrying about the numbers. You can post long-form text on X, too. But on X, you inevitably see impressions and follower counts. On note, those numbers are harder to see. It was a place where I could just write and publish. That was all I needed.
…Well, now I want to reach many people and I want to keep writing, so I am definitely interested in monetization. But for the me back then, it was just a story about needing a place like that first.
Then, on February 10th, I had my first opportunity to speak at an AI seminar. When I talked about my experiences in front of people, the participants said, "That is incredibly helpful." Experiences I had taken for granted were valuable to someone else.
From that day on, I started posting every day. I think the biggest thing was being able to think, "It's okay to let my inner self out."
The early days of note, where I wrote about "what I wanted to write" even if I only got 2 likes
When I look back at the articles from when I started posting daily, they only have 2 or 3 likes.
But when I line up the titles, that was the period when I was writing exactly what I "wanted to write" the most.
It is okay to embellish your background. However, "imagination" and "fantasy" are completely different things
The story of how I started doing something else because "do your best" stopped working
I was completely refuted by my boss, but it felt good
I'm in charge of AI promotion, but I write my own emails. I'll tell you why
None of these were written to go viral. I didn't think about SEO, user flow, or anything like that, not even for a millimeter. I just wanted to get what was inside me out. My inferiority complex about my academic background, my struggles as a manager, my sense of distance from AI—all of it, just as it is.
Honestly, there were days when I looked only at the numbers and wondered, 'Is there any point in doing this?' But strangely, I couldn't stop writing. Because there was still more I wanted to write. Because there was still something inside me I hadn't fully expressed.
If I had cared about the numbers back then and leaned toward writing 'popular articles,' I probably wouldn't have kept it up.
I thought 'expressing your inner self' and 'getting read' were separate things, but in the end, they were connected
To be honest, I thought 'expressing your inner self' and 'getting read' were two different stories.
Expressing your inner self is self-satisfaction. Getting read requires technique. SEO, how to write titles, designing user flow. I thought that if you didn't do those kinds of 'external adjustments,' you wouldn't reach people.
But after writing for over 80 days and looking back at the number of likes... it was a bit different.
The article about the presentation I gave to the president got 29 likes.
The article about speaking at an AI seminar got 11 likes.
The article titled 'I left it to AI and my own voice disappeared' got 33 likes.
None of these were articles written with technique. I just put out what was inside me, exactly as it was. In fact, the articles I posted while wondering, 'Is it okay to write this?' were the ones that got a response.
This is quietly important. I think expressing your inner self and getting read don't conflict; they are ultimately connected. Of course, SEO and title optimization are important. But if you don't have 'something you want to express' before that, no matter how much you polish the outside, it won't reach the reader. That is the conclusion I reached for myself.
It doesn't have to be note to express your inner self
I've been talking only about note up to this point, but to put it simply, it doesn't have to be note.
If the place where you can express your inner self is X, then X is fine. If expressing yourself through photos suits you better, then Instagram is fine. If you want to talk through videos, YouTube or TikTok is fine. I believe the important thing isn't 'which platform you choose,' but 'whether you can express your inner self.'
In my case, the style of writing long-form text with Kuro suited me. Kuro, who doesn't pick up on things, would ask me questions, and I would answer and put them into words. Through that back-and-forth, the things I had kept bottled up came out. And it just so happened that note was the place that accepted them.
That's why when I'm asked 'how to start on note,' all I can answer is 'find a place where you can express your inner self.' For things like how to create an account or how to set up your profile, you should look at the official note help page. What I can say is the story that comes before that.
What do you want to express? Who do you want to reach? ...No, you don't have to reach anyone at first. Just take what is inside you and bring it out. That is enough.
A summary of how to start on note
Every time I am asked how to start on note, I find myself wondering, "Why did I start it in the first place?"
Academic background complex
Changed jobs 6 times
My PowerPoint side hustle disappeared
Lost myself chasing numbers on X
Over 10 years of being a know-how collector
I wanted to lay it all bare. I met Kuro, was asked about it, answered, and it turned into words. And it just so happened that note was the place where I could put those words.
I don't think there is a right way to start. It's just that in my case, I found a "place where I could express my inner self," and that is why I continue. That is all.
If there is anyone out there right now who feels they have something to say but nowhere to put it, I want you to try putting it out there just once, whether it's on note, X, Instagram, or anywhere else. Your first post doesn't need to be read by anyone. Write it for yourself. That is enough.
Well then, if you'll excuse me.
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