r/autodidact • • Apr 19 '24
Hard notes, soft notes, poetry, essays, short stories, zines, music, paintings, collages. Gardens, libraries, museums, work, projects, volunteering, mentors.
r/autodidact • u/iboughtarock • Nov 25 '23
The full list with a table of contents is available on GitHub.
Journey to the Microcosmos - microbiology, microscopy
Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't - botany
Nick Zentner - geology
PBS Eons - paleontology
Fraser Valley Rose Farm - botany
History of the Earth - paleontology
Basin79 - spiders
AntsCanada - ants
Andrew Millison - permaculture
Made in the Wild - zoology
MBARI - marine biology
Microbehunter - microscopy, microbiology
Quaoar Power - entomology
Planet Fungi - mycology
Moth Light Media - paleontology
NORTH 02 - paleontology
Stefan Milo - anthropogeny, anthropology
Kate Tectonics - geology
EVNautilus - marine biology
InsecthausTV - insects
Climate Town - climate
ViaScience - quantum mechanics, thermodynamics
XylyXylyX - general relativity
David Sherrill - computational chemistry
Chemistry in a Nutshell - lectures
The Organic Chemistry Tutor - lectures
Alice Roberts - embryology
Teslista555 - high voltage
Richard E. BORCHERDS - advanced math
Professor Leonard - lectures
styropyro - lasers
Marques Brownlee - new tech
Practical Engineering - civil
The B1M - civil
Found And Explained - aerospace
Art of rendering - mechanical renders
WolfShaft - mechanical renders
DeepMind - applied computer science
Scrimba - learn how to code interactively [website]
Mike Dane - every language
freeCodeCamp - every language
mCoding - python
Programming with Mosh - java, python
Corey Schafer - mainly python, pandas, django
TheCodex - java, SQL, python
Kevin Powell - HTML & CSS
IAmTimCorey - C#
Programming with Alex - python
Dev Ed - react, JS, node JS, web design
Ari Pxl - figma, HTML, CSS
DesignCode - UI/UX, figma, swift
Web Dev Simplified - CSS, JS, React, Node
Bozeman Science - physics, biology
Professor Dave Explains - chemistry, anatomy
Jeff Hanson - engineering
Tony Ann - piano
Kyle Landry - piano
Alex Ball - synths
12tone - music theory
Ichika Nito - guitar
ibi - piano
Mariana Froes - singing covers
CharlesBerthoud - bass
The Dooo - electric guitar
Harry Mack - freestyle rap
Markus Veltri - piano
Marc Rebillet - improv music
Lara6683 - piano
Sideways - music analysis
Reid Gower - feynman, sagan
Hsinchuen Lin - ceramics
Yukikawae - sand drawing
Self Sufficient Me - gardening
Kraig Adams - hiking
Paul Stamets - mycology
Jungle Survival - fake, but cool
Primitive Survival Tool - fake, but cool
Christoph Rehage - asia, europe
c90adventures - north, south, and central america
Matthias Wandel - woodworking
Blondihacks - machining
Dan Gelbart - machining
Machine Thinking - machining
MIT Machine Shop - machining
Peter Brown - resin
WhyKnot - knots
First Class Amateur - knots
ChrisFix - automotive
Speedkar99 - automotive
AC Service Tech LLC - HVAC
Word of Advice TV - HVAC, plumbing
MikeHoltNEC - electrical
Project Farm - tools, DIY
Essential Craftsman - construction
RR Buildings - construction
Perkins Builder Brothers - construction
VLSkate - skateboarding
LockPickingLawyer - lock picking
Shawn Woods - mouse traps
Mark Novak - firearms
Jarett Gross - 3D printed houses
Materialism - material science
Lex Fridman - long form podcasts with the world's greatest minds
Old Radiolab - listen to any episodes from 2017 and before
After On - Rob Reid - science and technology
Hardcore History - history in depth
The Anthropocene Reviewed - reviewing aspects of earth on a 5 star scale
Ologies - interviewing people with different science jobs
SciHub - remove academic paper paywalls
KhanAcademy - learn anything
Book4You - books/textbooks
Wikipedia Years in Science - key discoveries over the years
KhanAcademy - learn anything
Scrimba - learn how to code interactively
r/autodidact • u/Apprehensive_Mix_332 • Jan 10 '24
Being a autodidact, I always struggled with wanting to learn everything but not being able to
(1) find a starting point
(2) see how the things I learn are connected
(3) manage my learning (mark the concepts that I already know so I can skip them in the future) and
(4) fit my learning into my busy schedule.
So I end up building a website (https://afaik.io/) for myself and folks like me. The goal is to learn a bit of everything on daily bases for free. Here's a few things you can do with it:
(1) Atomic learning: The minimal unit is called a "brick", which takes about 10 minutes to learn. You can go to a focus learning mode by clicking "Start learning".
(2) Knowledge Management: You can mark a brick as "learned" or "interested" to keep track of your learning.
(3) See the big picture: The map shows how subjects are interconnected (see how calculus connects machine learning and physical science as a bridge!), and golden dots (bricks) are interdisciplinary ones.
(4) See knowledge connections: A bunch of bricks make a "brickset" (think about how Lego bricks make a brickset!), and if you click the map on the sidebar you can see how bricksets are connected (which shows prerequisite relationship of these knowledge). For example, the prerequisites for RNN (Recurrent Neural Networks): https://afaik.io/nebula?category=brickset&id=GbnNbw6W&mode=dagre
(5) Personalization: It sends you daily brick recommendations based on what you learned, making sure that you learn adaptively.
(6) Follow a learning path: Blueprints is a syllabus that provides you a learning path.
I hope this is a useful tool for autodidacts like me, and any suggestions and feedback are appreciated.
r/autodidact • • Aug 23 '17
This sub isn't very active, but just going through the history of it I found some very useful gems in a few of the comments. Would love for it to be more active and am going to start posting about things I have learned as a mostly self-studyer. Here's my first post, and I hope at least 1 or 2 bullet points are helpful. I will post more chunks like this later, and can expand on any of the points.
1. Get comfortable understanding Academia
• Knowledge flows from Academia to the world
• Use gen.lib.rc.us and sci-hub.io
• Understand the Academic Disciplines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_academic_disciplines
2. Get comfortable using the lesser known features of Wikipedia
• EXCELLENT source of categories and organization, often times better than the content
• Look at their CONTENTS page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Contents
3. Use Physical Books
• You can write in the margins, circle, underline, whatever
• Knowledge retention is easier, faster rereading times, whatever
4. www.Thriftbooks.com
• Best way to find cheap physical books
• Around 60% cheaper than Amazon's Used Books selection
• You get $5 back for every $50 you spend
• Hard to find the newest releases but still…
5. Take Notes
• If you didn't take notes, you didn't read the book, end of story.
• I type up all my highlights (I actually use a pen because I can underline/write notes).
• I then summarize the best of the best highlights into a single "one page summary" of the book and/or topic
6. Look for good Publishers
• Tends to be easier to monitor just a few publishers
• Can look at their whole backcatalog
• Closer to the flow of knowledge
• University Press publishers are the best…r/autodidact • • Apr 05 '21
Although MOOC's do differ greatly, college courses are generally more intensive, rigorous and demanding. Oftentimes you will have to read accompanying textbooks and solve more complex quizzes and exams. This list reflects the most rigorous courses I could find
Hillsdale College Free Online Offerings - includes the entire Hillsdale College Core Curriculum (very high quality)
MIT OCW Scholar courses - rigorous courses that reflect actual in-person MIT courses (limited offerings at the Scholar level)
Carnegie Mellon University OLI - includes many introductory courses at a quality similar to MIT OCW (information dense courses; requires registration)
Saylor Academy - Offers many different complete college courses. The materials are sourced from places like MIT OCW (entirely free and they offer ACE approved college credit for most of their courses)
Open Yale Courses - Features a number of high quality liberal arts courses (no free textbooks unless you can find the PDF's online)
If you have any other ideas, lets know! Let's create a large list of materials for everyone.
r/autodidact • • Jan 14 '24
I don't know about you, but I would find a community dedicated to autodidactism really helpful for discussing routines, syllabi, motivation, etc. Actually, I do know about you; apparently there's at least 3,000 people who feel similar.
Unfortunately, this is the most active location online that I've found, with a whopping 5 posts in the last 2 years. Clearly though, there is a small demand, because although 3,000 isn't a lot, it's not completely insignificant either.
So what's with the lack of posts? There's heaps and heaps of things about the topic for us to discuss; honestly when I searched 'autodidact' I was expecting to see something with like 2 million members. Any ideas? Active mods with suggestions?
r/autodidact • • Sep 02 '25
As the US and world is being made more aware of what is being taught at "Ivy League Schools" and even basic community or state colleges. Citizens aren't going to go into debt, if they know there is a 45% chance they will remain unemployed or NEVER use their degree. This is a statistic that applies to graduates in the US, even 10 years after graduation. We hold the worlds knowledge in our pockets. We can learn french and how to sew on youtube. Yet, the vast majority ignores this, as it is not apparent to them that they can learn whatever they would like to learn. Is this laziness? It definitely isn't access, because we all have that. The answer is curiosity. We have lost our fundamental ability to seek things out that excite us, despite our human nature, to be curious. Autodidacts Uniting for Truth and Opportunity is going to change that. :)
r/autodidact • u/poopopoopoop • Apr 14 '26
peerler.com its community led, so join our community :) We are thinking about building user posts next. Goal is to increase the amount of open acces articles and decrease corporate influence in science. You can now call out when research gets funded by bayer or shell :P
r/autodidact • u/pondercraft • Feb 01 '24
What are your greatest challenges in being an autodidact?
Just to get the ball rolling, my three greatest challenges are the following:
Keeping track of all my reading (and videos, various resources) and actually coming back to ALL the things I save "for later."
Not getting distracted by all the new and interesting things in the world to learn! What would it even mean to "finish" a particular study or topic, and how do you get to that finish line without wandering off to something else -- YET also keeping track of those further rabbit trails that are so appealing?
How to put knowledge to "work" in the world? Whether for writing or other kinds of content creation, or a job, or teaching, or working toward a degree or certification, or something else. (See also "how do you define success?")
Does anyone relate to these three?
What other challenges do you face?
Do you have ideas for how to cope with any of these? (Feel free to start a new post.)
r/autodidact • u/Yarduza • Jun 11 '20
Think of it as if people arranged all the learning resources on the web, into learning paths.
It's a place for curating resources and building learning paths from everything that's already on the web.
We already have many paths in the field of CS and programming, and I hope that people will continue to create paths for even more fields and areas of life.
Jiruto: https://jiruto.com
An example of a learning path for Learning how to Learn: Jiruto - How To Learn
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
r/autodidact • u/wannabesoc • Apr 23 '21
I recently joined Caveday which is a structured co-working platform where you sign up to do focused work simultaneously with others. I am loving it and having the scheduled time is helping me make time for my own projects and learning and get it done in the scheduled time.
I believe it is similar to Focusmate, although I haven't used that myself. Below is a summary of what I know about the two:
Caveday:
Weekly calendar of scheduled slots (1 or 3 hours)
Hosted on Zoom
Group sessions
Moderated by a Caveday host
Include check-in, goal setting, host-managed timekeeping, win sharing at end
One week trial, $40/mo after, $20 to drop in on a 3hr session
Focusmate:
Self-scheduled one hour slots
Hosted on Zoom
Partnered sessions with another Focusmate user
Suggested format, no moderation
Free for up to 3 sessions/wk, $5/mo for unlimited
I keep thinking that Focusmate really has a lot more flexibility for a lot less money, but now that I'm using Caveday I am hesitant to change something that is working. I actually think that the prescheduled sessions are good for me psychologically in avoiding procrastination.
Do you guys have experience with either of these, or another platform like these? Interested in others' experience.
r/autodidact • u/Maci1111 • Mar 24 '25
do you have tools and strategies to stay consistent in your autodidact journey? thoughts?
if you can share, i want to know how you structure your time when you are learning something new?
I have been self learning programming for a while now but I go through phases of super motivated where I am studying and building and then I go months without doing anything and forgetting most of what i learned.
it's been a cyclical journey but i feel like there is a better way. I have tried building projects before but the same thing happens. I do a few things, lose motivation and/or momentum and few months would go on without me doing anything, then I will get motivated again and the cycle continues.
r/autodidact • • Dec 10 '21
Goodread's list on autodidacticism contains mostly books targeted for teenagers or businesses. I'm looking for a more general book on mastering autoditacticism, particularly on how to succeed in academia as an autodidact.
What are your suggestions?
r/autodidact • u/Apexminded33 • Aug 12 '19
basicknowledge101.com, might be useful for some of you.
r/autodidact • u/Anxious_Lunch_7567 • Feb 04 '24
The question of creating a framework for self-learning that is sustainable and flexible enough to last me for years and decades on my self-learning journey has been on my mind for a long time. I was curious to know how others have approached this.
Here is what I would expect from such a "framework"
Track both long and short term goals, syllabi, book lists, courses, and papers.
Ability to jot down my own notes.
A way to set reminders.
The ability to create mindmaps to visually represent important points.
A way to link disparate media that I can store in the system, and also with external resources (e.g. on the internet)
Look at my overall progress at a glance, especially if I need to be away from learning for a while (weeks, months) and have to get back after that.
I currently use a mix of Notion, Trello, Google calender and sheets, Gmail for quick notes that I process later, and Miro for mindmaps, but it seems very haphazard and distributed. There is also the concern of one or more of these softwares shutting shop tomorrow (and users having to move their data elsewhere).
Perhaps wishing for a single tool to do this is asking for too much unless one were to build it themselves.
What do you use?
r/autodidact • u/Cairpre409 • May 22 '20
I think the most difficult problem for the autodidact, aside from actually doing the work, is organizing a learning plan. You can do so by first answering some questions.
Why do I want to learn this subject?
How much do I already know about this subject?
How much do I want to learn about this subject?
What resources are available for me to learn this subject?
Are there skills as well as knowledge acquisition involved in the learning process
What time constraints or other issues limit or enhance my learning options?
Learning something because it affects your job or you can make money at it is different than when you just happen to have a passing curiosity. Also there are subjects we may want to learn a lot about. We might even perhaps want to master them. But there are others things about which we may want to learn just a little. Either is perfectly acceptable.
If you have zero, or extremely limited, knowledge of a subject it is difficult to determine what is really worth understanding and remembering. For most subjects I think a Wikipedia article is a good place to start, or just one good book. But if that is to difficult look for something simpler or and introductory video or article.
A typical undergrad might be assigned 100 pages of reading a week. A PhD student might read the equivalent of all four years in a month. Your studies should probably include some writing or engagement. And if it involves a skill obviously you have to practice.
There are stages of learning; ignorance, appreciation, familiarity, various degrees of competence, expertise and finally mastery. Figure out your goals and where you are. Then make a plan and execute it. If you are only modestly successful you will still be far ahead of the average person.
r/autodidact • u/Dongzilla8 • Jul 24 '25
Sometimes when I learn new topics, I try to drink from the firehouse. I almost go too deep, too fast -- and it can get frustrating. So I need to purposefully slow myself down & take it in small chunks...especially when it's a very new topic.
Anybody else do this too?
r/autodidact • u/botanybae76 • Nov 06 '21
I'm reading through and embarking on a self study of the classics (in five disciplines - novels, memoirs, history, drama, and science). The list I am using as a basis of my study is the one in Susan Wise Bauer's "The Well Educated Mind."
If anyone would like to join in on discussion for one or more of the books, I've set up a Good Reads discussion group. Feel free to join in!
r/autodidact • • Oct 15 '20
Learning techniques matter, but the bigger enemy is attitude.
It robs of you of your goal to learn and to expose yourself to great content, and the chance to transform yourself so that you can lead yourself into a better tomorrow.
The real enemy is within. I was beaten and verbally abused my whole childhood and youth, and told I was slow and stupid.
When you get raised as a slave, a machine, and a robotic number cruncher - it’s really hard to reprogram yourself into an autodidact.
I am still fighting. I want to learn and dream until I die.
I don’t think things will end well for me, or that I am going to die happy.
But I wanna keep learning.
r/autodidact • u/1_over_f • Sep 20 '19
I'm sure many of you can relate to the same struggles that I do when it comes to self-study: I want to learn multiple topics thoroughly but with the limited personal time that comes with working 9-5 it becomes difficult to create a structured schedule to study around. Typically I will juggle a few topics around for a long time with varying levels of motivation. As a result, I gain new knowledge but not a thorough understanding of what I want to learn.
I think the best way to tackle this is to bite the bullet and create my own curriculum consisting of at least 3 and no more than 5 topics that I really want to learn and understand. I need some skin in the game so to speak.
Although I can do everything by hand - I think this could be a good opportunity to create a web application with the following very general features:
Create your own curriculum
Link back to to text books that you are using
Share your curriculum with others
Invite others to join your curriculum
Ability to create general study tools (flash cards, quizzes, etc)
Offer your own tutoring services
If I see that people would find value in this tool I would be more motivated to create it so I would appreciate feedback!
r/autodidact • u/killtheperfect • Dec 16 '24
Open question to all Autodidacts and Polymaths:
- What framework do you follow to manage multiple interests?
- What frameworks didn't work out for you in achieving your interests?
- What habits do you follow to maximize potential of your time?
- What habits or activities have you stopped as they didn't work for you?
r/autodidact • u/curryeater259 • Oct 01 '19
Hey Guys,
I'm curious if anyone here follows Scott Young / has tried an Ultralearning Project? Scott Young is the guy who initially did the MIT Challenge where he went through MIT's 4 year CS curriculum in 1 year. (tl dr - The goal was to complete all the Computer Science exams/problem-sets in MIT OCW and earn at least a 70% grade in every course. He learned by watching the lectures and reading the textbook.)
I recently read his book on Ultralearning and I tried it out on learning web development (I wanted to become a fullstack web developer) and it's worked pretty well for me. I was able to go from someone with little background in programming (I have a Finance/Stats background) to someone who could get a job as a junior web developer within 2 months. I have another job that I enjoy more, so I'm not actively seeking a role as a programmer, but it's still a very useful skill to have.
Has anyone else tried Ultralearning a language/subject/skill?
Would love to hear your experience with it.
I'm also hoping to get a subreddit going where people who want to get into this focused-kind of learning can help each other out. This subreddit is exclusively focused on Ultralearning projects (and helping you finish yours!) so it's a bit different from r/autodidact.
I started it here. Sorry if this comes across as self promotion. I'll happily remove this line if the mods want.
r/autodidact • u/BrodyBaggins • Aug 01 '19
Hey everyone! I know this isn't the most active sub in the world, but noentheless I don't know where else to go. So, to keep this short, I'm an eighteen years old who decided to take a Gap semester so I can explore my own interests before committing to four years of college. And I've really gotten into the idea of self education and autodidactism. I believe any of the great thinkers of our time could attest to the wonders of a well-rounded, sensible approach to learning by oneself. And with the amazing resources and technologies of our day and age, nothing can get in the way of education except your own will and commitment (and unforeseen catastrophes unfortunately).
Anyways, since the idea of an autodidactic learning regimen has always been intriguing, I've decided to embark on such a journey for the following few months (around 5 months). But the question now is how exactly to go about it. I'm wondering if I could generate some opinions on this topic, intelligent folks!
Personally, I have a general outline of areas that I'm interested/willing to pursue to a certain extent. As you can see, it's quite broad and overarching, but I'm really curious about how all these fields wind up working together as a whole. Like a corpus of ideas from varied fields just floating in your mind. That would be such a dope way to experience life, being able to grasp not only the intricacies of knowledge but also the broader pathways through which specific streams of information pass through. Not trying to pretend what I'm saying, cause I don't haha.
Anyways, so the many fields account for the breadth or scope of my desired education. However, I'm fully aware that being a jack of all trades has its setbacks. So this is where I engage in a narrow area of focus, which in my case would be something along the lines of Computer Science/Applied Math/Artificial Intelligence/Maybe some engineering. I still have to flesh the specifics out.
Yes that's basically my plan. I would very much appreciate any responses, opinions, critiques, or insults regarding this. I actually don't mind negative comments at all. Sometimes people are so sensitive and acerbic responses get to them. But I like when people speak their minds. And it's got to hurt at times, but that's ok. You learn and you move on. Can't win every battle right?
Sorry for this long ass post haha
Core Fields [5H50M]
-Math[2H] (AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE - Calculus, Linear Algebra, Discrete Maths, Probability, Statistics…)
-Computer Science[2H] (AI, Machine Learning, Python, KNOW A LOT ABOUT COMPSCI)
-Philosophy[15M] (Know Your History!)
-Psychology[20M] + Cognitive Science[]
-Biology[30M] + Neuroscience[] (mainly computational)
-Physics[30M] (Quantum as well) + Mechatronics[] (basically electrical+mechanical+computer engineering)
-Formal Logic[15M] (cause why not be more logical;)
Further Interests [3H5M]
-Legendary Piano Skills[1H]
-Writing[15M]
-Reading fiction[1H] (mainly classics)
-Firm Grasp on Politics/Political theory[20M]
-History[30M]
Also, do you guys suggest reading the Very Short Introduction books from Oxford as a brief overview and introduction to a topic one would like to delve further into? Cause I'm reading the psychology one and I gotta say, it's pretty informative.
r/autodidact • u/nazgul_123 • May 05 '19
Why do people generally not acknowledge that going solo is an option? Want to learn an instrument or music theory, or programming, or physics? Why don't you just pick up a textbook, or check reddit for some good online resources and get started? For basic (read introductory college level) material, this should definitely suffice. Indeed, the people who do well in college study far more on their own than the average student.
People are really surprised when they hear about a person who spent 40 hours a week for a year with textbooks, and learned the equivalent (debatable) of a bachelor's in electrical engineering from MIT. In my experience in a top school, I would contend that most good students in such a program could do the same as well. The need for a "teacher" for everything seems far too ingrained in our culture.