Last week, in an interview, I was asked to explain my work on a user assistance bot. Once the interview had ended, I realized that I had forgotten to share the origin story behind the idea.

Every project has a moment of inspiration. For my user assistance bot, the seed was planted while experimenting with wit.ai (an independent startup at the time, now part of Meta). Exploring its capabilities got me thinking about chatbots and how they connect to technical writing.

Back then, I was building a contextual help system and wondered if I could create a contextual chatbot. I wrote down the idea but set it aside since I did not have the technical expertise to pursue it right away.

Years later, the original concept remained saved in my Dropbox archive. Returning to those old notes gave me the perspective I needed to flesh out the idea and advance the user assistance bot much further than I originally imagined.

To illustrate the value of personal knowledge management, I am sharing a screenshot from my original Dropbox upload. That note, written years ago in Markdown and saved in Dropbox, remained easy to find and relevant even after a long gap.

Today, I rely on tools like Obsidian to organize my thoughts and project materials even more efficiently. Seeing firsthand how a well-managed digital archive can preserve ideas, I am convinced that investing in personal knowledge management is invaluable for creators and builders.

If you are a builder or creator, consider practicing PKM. The seeds you plant today may be the breakthroughs your future self relies on.