Years of listening.
I have followed Marco Montemagno for years. And I really do mean years.
He keeps me company while I drive, when I travel, whenever I have a chance to listen to something. I have lost count of the videos and podcasts I have watched, listened to and revisited. Even the old ones: sometimes they are worth dusting off. With hindsight, a sentence takes on a different meaning. Or you find yourself thinking: “Blimey, Marco said that ages ago.”
Meanwhile, my little notebook was filling up. Ideas, observations, questions, things to try. Until the same problem came round again: I remembered that he had said something that interested me, but not where, when or in which episode.
I needed a way to find that passage again, get back to the content and remember, at least roughly, what it was about. AskMonty grew out of that need.
An idea in a drawer.
The idea goes back more than two years. At first, there was little more than a registered domain: a first breadcrumb, then left sitting there. In my spare time, I kept thinking about it, planning and collecting notes. I would listen to a new episode and add something. Then remove something, change it, start again.
It was a small dream tucked away in a drawer. It had a name, but not yet a shape.
An atomic flash.
Then AI changed what I could actually build. And that was when I saw the light. An atomic flash, I would say.
I told myself: “Now is the time.” And I started bringing to life everything that, until then, had stayed on the pages of my notebook.
What I am getting out of it.
AskMonty is an independent, unofficial project, unaffiliated with Marco Montemagno. There are no agreements or contracts with him. Just someone who has followed him for years, trying to make something useful for others too, always linking back to the original content and sources.
I am not expecting any Ciocorì. Although, to tell the truth, I did like them. Quite a lot.
What I am getting out of this is already a great deal: I am applying AI to a real situation, with a concrete need, problems to solve and results to check. In practice, I am my own client. And that is teaching me more than plenty of exercises in AI and agents built without a purpose that felt truly my own.
Meanwhile, this project has led to three others, in different fields.
That drawer, it turns out, held more than one idea.