I Made a Note-Generating App to Free My Brain

Because I Want to Stay Lazy and Stay Connected — And You Can Too!

Image generated by ChatGPT

Have you ever struggled to post short-form notes on LinkedIn, Substack, X, or Bluesky?

Did it feel tedious knowing you already had long-form content, but extracting ideas from it felt like too much work?

I felt the same way over the past couple of months while exploring these platforms. I kept thinking — there has to be an easier way to repurpose my heartfelt ideas without all the extra effort.

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The Spark That Started It All

After building the laziest possible inspirational quotes generator, it sparked something amazing in me.

GenAI 30-Project Challenge — Project 2

This project simply pulls random quotes from an AI model’s database. But imagine if it could generate insights based on your own work — your articles, newsletters, or blog posts.

Wouldn’t that be more authentic and personal, creating content that truly resonates?

With this app, you can now turn your content into engaging short-form notes for LinkedIn, Substack, and beyond — without breaking a sweat.

The Desired Features

Here’s what I want from the note-generating app:

• 📚 Turn articles into inspirational quotes: Just paste a link (from your Substack, Medium, wherever) and get instant bite-sized content.

• 📰 Substack integration: Paste your publication link, and it will fetch the latest articles, letting you pick the best ones based on engagement.

• ✂️ Copy-paste content generation: Simply drop in text, and let the app do its magic.

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The Development Journey

The Smooth Path to MVP

Without writing a single line of code, I asked AI to pull my Substack articles and generate engaging notes using pre-defined templates.

The results? Fantastic.

I realized that with the right prompts, AI could effortlessly handle content generation through APIs. From there, it was just a matter of building a simple interface to visualize the output and bringing my MVP (minimum viable product) to life.

To speed things up, I reused large chunks of code from my first product, which saved time and allowed me to focus on refining the core features instead of reinventing the wheel.

The Twists and Turns for Improved UI

From my first MVP, I received plenty of feedback about improving the UI presentation.

Screenshot by Jenny’s post on Reddit SideProject

I promised myself to do better this time.

Initially, the design was… well, let’s just say uninspiring.

No logo, no styling, just a plain, functional site.

Screenshot by Jenny — plain user interface with no design, logo, nothing

So, I created a logo (with a little help from AI) and added introduction and more structure. But something still felt off , eventually, I realized the missing piece: color themes!

Aligning the color scheme with the brand made all the difference. And voila — my simple, functional site became visually appealing with a cohesive theme!

Affordable Challenges in Launching

If you’ve read about my first app launch, you know it was a rollercoaster of unexpected lessons.

The Unexpected Lessons Behind My First App Launch

This time, I wanted a simpler and more affordable setup. But, of course, things didn’t go as planned.

The Great Timeout Struggles

# Gunicorn config
timeout = 30  # "That should be enough!"
# Narrator: It was not enough.
timeout = 300  # "Fine, take your time..."
keepalive = 65  # "Please, just stay alive!"

File Location Hide-and-Seek

$ ls /var/www/flask_app
# Where’s my requirements.txt?
# *checks every folder*
# Oh, it's still in media/web_app… of course! 🤦‍♀️

After battling timeouts, async requests, and deployment hurdles, I finally made it work (with much less time input compared to the first one!). And it hasn’t crashed in the last 24 hours! 🎉

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What the App Can Do (So Far)

• 🚀 Generate 18 engaging notes per post

• 🎯 Categorize them as Provoking, Educational, or Entertaining

• 📂 Handle multiple posts simultaneously

• 📬 Process entire Substack feeds effortlessly

• 💳 Manage credits purchasing and gift options

The Growing Feature Checklist

• ✅ Basic note generation

• ✅ Multiple note categories

• ✅ Substack integration

• ✅ User authentication

• ✅ Async processing

• ✅ Error handling

• ☐ World domination (coming soon!)

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What This Project Taught Me

Compared to my first MVP launch, this experience has been much smoother.

• Keeping everything within a single website made debugging and testing far easier. No more dependency conflicts across multiple platforms.

• Setting up Oracle Cloud was surprisingly straightforward, thanks to AI-guided instructions.

• The feedback from early users was encouraging — people were excited to try the app, and their positive responses reassured me that I was onto something.

One major win? The creator behind the major note-generation formulas loved the idea and fully supported the project!

Big shout out to

Ana Calin

for the best-ever templates!

Beyond the technical side, this journey introduced me to amazing people who are just as excited about the app’s potential.

Ultimately, this project is proving to be more than just another water-test app — it’s creating real value, sparking meaningful discussions, and connecting me with like-minded individuals.

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A Little House Keeping

Why charge for credits after 20 free trials when my last product was one-time purchase?

• The previous product had an integrated LLM, meaning there were no recurring costs.

• This app, however, uses API tokens for every request, which can add up quickly.

• Offering paid credits keeps things sustainable without forcing me to split the app into different versions for various operating systems.

Why mention Substack with Medium?

After spending months on both platforms, I’ve learned something that no one seems to talk about:

Substack and Medium are not enemies, in some way, they complement each other.

I’ll dive deeper into this in another article, but the truth is, they serve different audiences and needs, and leveraging both can be powerful for content creators.

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Want to Try It Out?

Check out Quick Viral Notes here →

I’d love to hear what you think! Your feedback will help improve the app, which improves your growth (and keep me entertained during those long debugging sessions).

P.S. Yes, the app has a 5-minute timeout now — because sometimes, even AI needs a coffee break! ☕️

P.S.S. Yes, I have been using it in the past week, and I’m loving it!