It Started with a Lack of Exercise

It all began with a common problem: I wasn’t getting enough exercise.

Remote work became standard, which was flexible, but it also meant I had days where I didn’t leave the house at all. I knew I needed to change that, so I started a new habit: just walking.

After about a year of this, I noticed something.

You don’t really hit your step goals by just wandering aimlessly. To get a high step count, you need to be intentional. You have to consciously decide, “Okay, I’m leaving my desk,” and then go outside.

This regular habit of “leaving the desk” became a starting point for a new question and a new “problem” for me to solve.

The Hypothesis: “Good Ideas Happen Away from the Desk”

We’re in a period of change, with some companies pushing for a “return to the office.” But setting those trends aside, I decided to seriously analyze a feeling I was having.

It was something I’d often felt as an engineer: “My thoughts seem to get more organized when I walk or step away from my computer.”

This led me to a hypothesis:

“Are new ideas and organized thoughts born not while sitting at the desk, but in the moments away from it?”

This is what I started to call my “Sanpou no Issue” (The “Walk” Issue).

This line of thinking led to two more questions:

“Is this just a personal quirk?”

“Or does everyone eventually reach this same conclusion?”

If I can find an answer, this “project” of mine will be complete.

The Core of Intellectual Production in the Age of GenAI

Pursuing this “Sanpou Issue” led me to think about the essence of intellectual production.

For me, the core of this is “the process of breaking down information in my own words and truly internalizing it.”

With the recent rise of Generative AI, this concept has become more important than ever. In an age where an AI can instantly create “plausible-sounding” text, “how quickly you can capture your own unique thoughts as written text” directly affects your personal productivity.

An AI cannot yet generate the “original insights” that come from your specific experiences and perspective. In fact, the value of those original insights has only increased.

The Problem: “Idle” Time vs. “Capture” Time

So, how do we generate more of these original insights?

In my experience, it’s during “idle” or “zoning out” (ぼーっとする) time.

This means no music, no podcasts, and no apps. Just thinking. Walking turned out to be the perfect environment for this.

But this creates a major problem.

An idea is useless if you can’t immediately write it down in a usable format.

Carrying a paper notebook is one solution, but it’s often inconvenient. It’s a hassle to pull out a pen and notebook while you’re walking.

But using your standard, full-featured note app isn’t the right tool for this moment, either.

You open the app, decide which folder to use, wait for the editor to load… and in those few seconds, the initial momentum of the idea is lost.

The Solution: A UX Focused Only on the “Moment of Capture”

Everyone uses a note app these days, whether it’s Notion, Evernote, or just a basic memo pad. I’m not asking people to switch from their favorite tools.

The final organization and editing of notes can, and should, still be done in those main apps.

What I saw a need for was a “wrapper” for these existing apps.

I wanted to design a UX (User Experience) that is specialized for one thing only: “The exact moment an idea appears, allowing you to write it down immediately.”

• It launches instantly to a blank text input.
• There are no extra features or formatting.
• The text can be easily sent to your main note app later.
• And most importantly: Data never leaves the device (local-first). Your private “fragments of thought” are not uploaded to any server.

In Closing

A simple habit I started for exercise has, in a roundabout way, led me to think about intellectual production, the challenge of capturing thought, and a concept for an app.

Thinking away from the desk.

And capturing the idea the moment it appears.

This simple process might be the key skill we need to work effectively in the new era of AI.

This question I call the “Sanpou no Issue” isn’t fully answered.

But don’t you also find yourself “thinking” while you walk?