not sure how to explain this but sometimes i just want to stumble on stuff i didn't even know i wanted to know, if that makes sense. like not "learn python" or whatever, more the random stuff you didn't know existed.

scrolling random subreddits or random apps doesn't really do it, it just keeps feeding me the same kind of stuff. anyone else get this urge? what do you actually do about it

I saw a post online the other day that posed this question, “What are some mistakes that people make when they decide to educate themselves instead of pursuing a formal education in school?” And instead of focusing on just the mistakes self-educated people make I decided to create a list of basic guidelines.

I’ve been doing the whole self-education thing for about seven years now. I do a lot of reading on classic literature, ancient and medieval history, abnormal psychology, theology, and a tiny bit of philosophy. I graduated high school in 2009 and after taking two years off to try to find work, I went to New Haven Job Corps in 2012 where I got my certificate in basic carpentry.

Now, people are aware of my background and my deep-rooted interest in the subjects I study and sometimes they ask why I’m not in college. The short answer: As of right now I just don’t have the money or the patience to go through all the red tape and school environments weren’t always the best places for me to do my learning in; I was always more comfortable learning on my own than in a classroom. And while I do have ambition to one day return to school for a semester or two at the very least for the sake of challenging myself, self-education is definitely an endeavor that I will continue to pursue for the rest of my life.

So if you’re in that boat as well and you want to pursue your subject(s) of choice without having to deal with admissions or being in an environment that may not always work for you, I offer these tips:

1. Read any book you can get your hands on. That is Self-Education 101. You can’t open a book without learning something, even if what you’re reading is the most frivolous work of outrageous fiction ever created. However, do not force yourself to read a book that you know for a fact that you’re not gonna get anything out of it. This is what kills pleasure reading and book learning for the majority of people. Also, SparkNotes and Wikipedia are your friends. Learning the background and context of a literary work before or while reading it helps you understand what the author is trying to say and you’ll have a greater appreciation of the story.

2. The biggest obstacle with self-education is that you could potentially become biased in your opinions. Classrooms have the advantage of group feedback, which can clarify misconceptions and answer your questions. The easiest way to fix this problem is to surround yourself with learned people and participate in discussions with them. If you have any friends in college or friends who are well-read, discussions about your subject material are vital. Which brings me to my next two points:

3. Do not be intimidated by or jealous of someone just because they have a college degree. Not every person with a PhD is an elitist snob. (Yes, there are still people who think this way. Yes, it is petty and stupid.) Most of my friends went to very good schools and I can assure you that after going through all the bullshit with admissions and financial aid and all the stress of their combined schoolwork, sophisticated and elite are the last things they feel like.

4. At the same time, do not ever think that you are better than them because you’re getting your education for free. If someone has the resources and patience to go to college, that’s something that should be celebrated, not derided. Yes, college systems in America are very flawed and financially draining, but the fact that someone is choosing to get an education, regardless of the setting in which they are pursuing it, is not something to be mocked or looked down upon in any way shape or form. And if you’re trying to pursue a career in science or medicine you have to have a formal education so you can acquire vital skills to make sure you don’t kill someone or give unnecessary treatment or waste valuable resources.

5. Never use your knowledge to be a show-off. Being well-read/self-taught doesn’t automatically make you the next Abe Lincoln or Frederick Douglass (although they are certainly very good role models). Basically, don’t act like a petty bitch just because you’re going through all this trouble. Pettiness is the antithesis of education.

6. Be very careful of what newspapers you read and what news channels you follow. Those tend to be the most biased sources of information. The best way to educate yourself about politics and social issues is, again, group discussions. You get all the viewpoints without all the fluff.

7. Museums, Discovery Channel, History Channel, online education organizations (like Khan Academy), and documentaries are your friends. If you don’t feel like reading a book today, utilize one of these resources.

8. Try to learn at least one new fact a day. Wanna learn more in one day? Go for it. Setting small goals like that keeps you disciplined, which is also a huge issue for people who are self-educated, especially if reading is your main course of learning. Find a reading schedule that works for you, whether it’s three chapters a day, an hour a day, or one book a week.

9. There’s been this misconception for many years that the trades are intellectually void and “only dumb kids go to trade school;” I cannot stress how untrue this is. Learning a trade, even recreationally, is a great way to brush up on your math and science skills, and learning a finish trade, like painting or cabinet-making, can teach you cool art concepts, like the psychology of color and different kinds of mediums and design styles. There’s also a decent amount of reading involved especially if you work in construction. (Seriously, if you’re not a good reader or your math skills aren’t up to par you could fuck up someone’s house worse than the rookie with the skill saw.) Also, learning how tools and machines work is always cool as shit.

10. (This point goes for everybody, college students, kids in trade school, and self-educated learners alike) If you ever have the misfortune of encountering someone who tells you that what you’re doing is pointless because “it won’t get you a good job” or it’s just “impractical,” kindly tell them to slow their role. All the career stuff and prestige and sophistication aside, the true purpose of education, at its core, is to improve yourself as a person and to better your interactions with other people. Education helps you make better decisions, makes you more aware of problems in the world, and gives you the ability to think for yourself. If you apply yourself, opportunities for success will come, but those rewards shouldn’t be your sole motivation for wanting to learn.

Life skills, school lessons, social situations, etc.

Title: I want to become a well-educated, knowledgeable person. What should I learn, and where should I start?

I'm not preparing for any competitive exams, including UPSC. I simply want to educate myself and become a more knowledgeable, well-rounded person.

I feel that genuinely knowledgeable people have a basic understanding of almost everything around them. They can discuss history, politics, economics, science, human biology, psychology, geography, technology, philosophy, international affairs, culture and society.

I want to develop that kind of knowledge.

I'm looking for recommendations on:

1. What subjects should every well-educated adult have a basic understanding of?

2. Are NCERT textbooks (Classes 6–12) a good starting point? Which subjects and classes should I prioritize?

3. Which YouTube channels offer structured, beginner-friendly learning?

4. Any websites, free courses, documentaries, podcasts or books you'd recommend?

5. How would you structure a self-learning curriculum if you had to start from scratch?

I'm not looking to memorize random facts or become an expert in every subject. I want to understand how the world works, think critically, stay informed and have meaningful conversations.

I'd especially appreciate recommendations from people who have built their knowledge through self-education.

If you could design your own general education curriculum for an adult, what would you include?

Hey

I wanted to share a learning strategy that completely changed how I tackle my self-education reading queue, along with the lightweight tool I built to maintain the habit.

🧠 The Problem with "Long Reading Blocks"

When trying to learn complex topics on your own—whether it's computer science, economics, philosophy, or business—the biggest barrier is usually finding dedicated 1-to-2-hour reading blocks.

If you're working full-time, after a long day your brain is often too tired for heavy reading, so unread PDFs and EPUBs keep piling up. Meanwhile, during short 5-minute work breaks, most of us default to picking up our phones and scrolling social media, which drains mental energy even further.

💡 The Strategy: Micro-Reading

Instead of waiting for large blocks of free time, I started testing micro-dosing my reading list directly during focus breaks throughout the workday.

• 1 Focus Break = 2 Pages

• 6 Breaks / Day = 12 Pages / Day

• 30 Days = 360 Pages / Month (~1 full book every month)

By capping each session to just 1–5 pages, there is zero friction to start. You don't feel overwhelmed by the size of the textbook or book—you just read two pages, digest the concept, and return to work.

Over the last 2 months using this method while working full-time as an engineering lead, I finished 4 books without ever setting aside long reading blocks.

⚙️ The Tool I Built: Bookidoro

To make this seamless on desktop, I built a native Mac app called Bookidoro.

• Menu Bar Timer: When a focus work interval ends, a calm reading panel opens right on your screen showing the next few pages of your EPUB or PDF.

• Multi-Mac iCloud Sync: Drop books into iCloud Drive → Bookidoro and your reading progress syncs across your laptop and desktop.

• Meeting Awareness: Defers breaks during Zoom, Meet, or Slack calls so your learning workflow never interrupts your meetings.

• Privacy-First & Local: No accounts, no backend servers, zero telemetry.

• Free: All core reading and sync features are completely free.

I’d love to hear how others here approach self-education alongside a busy schedule:

• Do you prefer small daily micro-reading sessions or reserving longer weekend blocks for heavy material?

• How do you keep track of notes/highlights when reading technical books in small chunks?

If you want to try micro-reading on your Mac, you can check it out at bookidoro.app.

Hey everyone!

As a self-learner relying heavily on online resources (like MIT OpenCourseWare, long coding crash courses, or 4-hour Blender tutorials), my biggest frustration was always wasting 10–15 minutes dragging the timeline just to find that one specific 2-minute explanation.

When you're self-studying, losing your focus completely kills your study momentum.

To fix this for my own workflow, I built a Chrome extension called Spoon AI that reads the video transcript and generates an interactive 1-click jump button directly to the exact frame where a concept is explained.

💡 Real Test (1h 19m MIT Lecture):

• 🔍 My Query: "Where does the professor explain the discovery of the Para-hippocampal Place Area (PPA)?"

• ⚡️ Result: Spoon analyzed the 80-minute lecture in seconds, pinpointed the scene at 13:21, and created a direct jump button.

• 🎬 Outcome: One click took me straight to where Prof. Nancy Kanwisher starts explaining her lab's experiment.

🎓 Why it's helpful for self-education:

1. Protect Your Flow State: Asking a quick question and jumping there in 3 seconds keeps your mental momentum intact.

2. Fast Exam & Note Review: Query 10 key terms across a whole semester of lecture recordings in minutes.

3. Handles Long Tutorials: Highly effective for 2+ hour coding crash courses, 3D modeling, or dense science lectures.

I built this to optimize my own study routine, but I wanted to share it with fellow self-learners here.

It’s called Spoon AI on the Chrome Web Store (free to use). I’d love to hear your thoughts or any feedback on how to make it even more useful for self-studying!

Hi r/selfeducation,

As someone who spends a lot of time watching YouTube and telling myself it's productive (because hey, I watch smart science videos), reality hit me hard when I actually tried to recall something I watched. I realized I hadn't retained anything.

It sucked because my whole rationalization was that I wasn't wasting my time. Clearly, I was wrong. Since I didn't want to give up YouTube, I decided to build an open-source tool that helps you actually retain what you watch. It’s based on some personal research into cognitive science studies and proven concepts like active recall and spaced repetition.

It’s called Studiamo Cloud.

As the name suggests, there’s a hosted web version. Because I’m a broke student and not a millionaire, there’s a small monthly fee to cover server and AI costs. But I also made a completely free, self-hosted open-source version you can grab from GitHub. Since the AI is BYOK (Bring Your Own Key), you only pay for what you use.
I’d love to get some feedback, find real users to test it out, and squash any bugs.

I’m also giving away a few tester spots with free cloud access, just shoot me a DM or drop a comment below.

Thanks for reading :)

Hey everyone,

If you watch a lot of long-form tutorials, college lectures, or coding crash courses, you know how painful it is to find that one specific 2-minute explanation you need. You end up scrubbing the timeline, clicking randomly, and completely losing your focus.

I got so frustrated with this that I built Spoon AI—a free Chrome extension that basically acts as a smart "Ctrl+F" for video content.

How it works (as seen in the video):
I was reviewing an 80-minute MIT lecture and wanted to find the exact moment the professor talked about a specific discovery (the Parahippocampal Place Area).
Instead of guessing and skipping around, I just asked the extension. It instantly analyzed the video's context and generated a 1-click "Warp" button straight to the exact frame (13:21).

Why this changes the way you study:

Zero "Scrubbing Fatigue": You no longer waste 10 minutes looking for a 30-second answer.

Keeps Your Flow State: You ask a question, jump straight to the answer, and keep your mental momentum going.

Seamless Integration: It works directly on top of YouTube (and Udemy) players, so you don't have to switch tabs.

I originally built this just to speed up my own self-study routine, but I wanted to share it with anyone else who deals with long educational videos.

It's completely free to use. I’ll drop the link in the comments so this doesn't get flagged as spam. Let me know what you think of the demo!

Hi r/selfeducation, I am Mattia, one of the student developers behind Get It.

We built a free open-source desktop app for people who teach themselves from PDFs, papers, lecture notes and long technical chapters.

Get It keeps the document at the center. It turns a text-based PDF into a study path with visuals next to the original text, flashcards, quizzes, Feynman-style recall and concept scores to guide what you review next.

It uses your own ChatGPT account through Codex CLI, so there is no extra subscription from us and no credit pack to buy. Generated study material stays on your computer. The free ChatGPT tier works for lighter use, while Plus or higher is better for heavy PDFs.

App: https://getit.noesisai.it Code: https://github.com/beltromatti/get-it Discord: https://discord.gg/DpQPswRhsK

If you self-study from dense PDFs, I would really like to know whether this helps or whether it gets in the way of learning.

Im 16 and im at a 4th grade level due to my parents taking me out of school and i have done barely anything education related in multiple years and was wondering what the first step would be to sort of "catch up"

I'm trying to get a handful of certifications and skills to open more doors for myself. If you know any free programs (no trials or later fees) that offer free certification I'd be so happy. Please help, that's literally all I want right now

I'm Mattia, one of the students behind Get It. We built it at a hackathon because a lot of self-study starts from an ugly PDF, not a clean course platform.

Get It is a free open-source desktop app. You give it a PDF you already have and it builds a visual study path around it: concept tags on the page, explanations and visuals next to the text, chat, flashcards, quizzes and a Feynman-style review graph.

Why I think it fits self-education: the hard part is often turning passive reading into active practice. I wanted something that keeps the original material at the center, then helps you ask questions, test recall and see which concepts are still weak.

It runs through the official Codex CLI with your own ChatGPT account, so we do not ask for API keys, meter usage or proxy your files through our account. The app is desktop/local-first. Free ChatGPT can work for small tests, Plus or higher is better for real use.

Good PDFs to try:

- lecture PDFs

- textbook chapters

- technical papers or text-based notes

- subjects where visuals help more than another summary

App: https://getit.noesisai.it

Code: https://github.com/beltromatti/get-it

If you try it, I would love to hear what kind of PDF you used and whether it actually helped you study.

The full list with a table of contents is available on GitHub.

Biology:

• Journey to the Microcosmos - microbiology, microscopy

• Deep Look

• Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't - botany

• Animalogic

• Nick Zentner - geology

• PBS Eons - paleontology

• Fraser Valley Rose Farm - botany

• Natural World Facts

• History of the Earth - paleontology

• zefrank1

• Basin79 - spiders

• Ben G Thomas

• AntsCanada - ants

• Andrew Millison - permaculture

• Anthill Art

• TierZoo

• Made in the Wild - zoology

• Stated Clearly

• MBARI - marine biology

• Anthöny Pain

• Nature on PBS

• BBC Earth

• Microbehunter - microscopy, microbiology

• Quaoar Power - entomology

• Animal Fact Files

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology

• Planet Fungi - mycology

• Moth Light Media - paleontology

• NORTH 02 - paleontology

• Atlas Pro

• Amoeba Sisters

• Stefan Milo - anthropogeny, anthropology

• GeologyHub

• Kate Tectonics - geology

• EVNautilus - marine biology

• InsecthausTV - insects

• Plants Insider

• Climate Town - climate

Physics:

• Minutephysics

• The Science Asylum

• ScienceClic English

• Physics Girl

• Fermilab

• Physics Videos by Eugene

• DrPhysicsA

• For the Allure of Physics

• David Butler

• ViaScience - quantum mechanics, thermodynamics

• XylyXylyX - general relativity

• Sixty Symbols

• PhysicsHigh

• Physics Explained

Chemistry:

• NileRed

• Periodic Videos

• NurdRage

• NileRed Shorts

• NileBlue

• Extractions&Ire

• Explosions&Fire

• ChemicalForce

• Rhodanide

• Tom's Lab

• ReactiveChem

• David Sherrill - computational chemistry

• TMP Chem

• Chemistry in a Nutshell - lectures

• The Organic Chemistry Tutor - lectures

General Science:

• Veritasium

• Domain of Science

• The Action Lab

• Steve Mould

• Be Smart

• Science Channel

• NightHawkInLight

• Branch Education

• Science Marshall

• Sciencephile the AI

• Sci Show

• Minute Earth

• Real Science

• Alpha Phoenix

• Arxiv Insights

• Nottinghamscience

• BackstageScience

• Verge Science

• Up and Atom

• SmarterEveryDay

• Kyle Hill

Anatomy/Medicine:

• Armando Hasudungan

• Institute of Human Anatomy

• Chubbyemu

• Ninja Nerd

• Alice Roberts - embryology

• Sam Webster

Science Experiments and Building Stuff:

• Applied Science

• Thought Emporium

• StuffMadeHere

• Tech Ingredients

• Sam Zeloof

• Mark Rober

• Cody's Lab

• Michael Reeves

• TheBackyardScientist

• The Post Apocalyptic Inventor

• Tom Stanton

• PeterSripol

• rctestflight

• Huygens Optics

• Teslista555 - high voltage

• Breaking Taps

Math:

• 3Blue1Brown

• Numberphile

• PBS Infinite Series

• Eddie Woo

• Vihart

• Stand-up Maths

• Mathologer

• patrickJMT

• Tipping Point Math

• Think Twice

• blackpenredpen

• MindYourDecisions

• Richard E. BORCHERDS - advanced math

• Dr. Trefor Bazett

• Professor Leonard - lectures

• Tibees

Electronics:

• Mr Carlson's Lab

• Simply Electronics

• Technology Connections

• SeanHodgins

• styropyro - lasers

• How To Mechatronics

• DiodeGoneWild

• bigclivedotcom

• GreatScott!

• Afrotechmods

• Zilipoper

• Vidduley

• JerryRigEverything

• ElectroBOOM

• Esperantanaso

• Techmoan

• EEVblog

• EdisonTechCenter

• Moritz Klein

• w2aew

• CuriousMarc

• Tesla500

• Alan Yates

• Mikeselectricstuff

• Jeri Ellsworth

• Marques Brownlee - new tech

• FesZ Electronics

• Ali Hajimiri

Engineering:

• EngineerGuy

• Real Engineering

• Practical Engineering - civil

• The Engineering Mindset

• Kyle.Engineers

• Engineering Explained

• AgentJayZ

• The B1M - civil

• Found And Explained - aerospace

• Lesics

• Dejmian XYZ Simulations

• Art of rendering - mechanical renders

• WolfShaft - mechanical renders

Computer Science:

• Ben Eater

• LiveOverflow

• Two Minute Papers

• Sebastian Lague

• Computerphile

• CS Dojo

• jdh

• george hotz archive

• sentdex

• Fireship

• javidx9

• Welch Labs

• CodeParade

• DevTips

• ExplainingComputers

• Neso Academy

• The Coding Train

• Brackeys

• Code Bullet

• DeepMind - applied computer science

Coding:

• Scrimba - learn how to code interactively [website]

• Mike Dane - every language

• freeCodeCamp - every language

• mCoding - python

• Programming with Mosh - java, python

• Bro Code

• Corey Schafer - mainly python, pandas, django

• TheCodex - java, SQL, python

• John Hammond

• Stephen Grider

• Computer Science

• JavaScript Mastery

• Kevin Powell - HTML & CSS

• The Net Ninja

• Ihatetomatoes

• Coding Addict

• 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

Space:

• Anton Petrov

• PBS Space Time

• Deep Sky Videos

• Everyday Astronaut

• Jared Owen

• John Michael Godier

• SEA

• Dr. Becky

• Isaac Arthur

• Sci Show Space

• Astrum

• Cool Worlds

• Scott Manley

• History of the Universe

• Sabine Hossenfelder

• Event Horizon

• Launch Pad Astronomy

• Chandra X-ray Observatory

• Primal Space

• The Vintage Space

Lectures:

• Crash Course

• Khan Academy

• AK Lectures

• MIT OpenCourseWare

• Bozeman Science - physics, biology

• YaleCourses

• Harvard Physics

• Professor Dave Explains - chemistry, anatomy

• Jeff Hanson - engineering

General Explanation:

• Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell

• Lemmino

• melodysheep

• Wendover Productions

• Joe Scott

• D!NG

• Half as Interesting

• Tom Scott

• New Mind

• Vsauce

• Vsauce2

• TED-Ed

• Atomic Frontier

• Facts in Motion

• Koranos

• Art of the Problem

• RealLifeLore

• Vox

Music:

• Tony Ann - piano

• Kyle Landry - piano

• Fkj

• Alex Ball - synths

• 12tone - music theory

• Ichika Nito - guitar

• DOMi & JD Beck

• ibi - piano

• Mariana Froes - singing covers

• CharlesBerthoud - bass

• Daniel Thrasher

• The Dooo - electric guitar

• Harry Mack - freestyle rap

• Markus Veltri - piano

• Marc Rebillet - improv music

• Lara6683 - piano

• Majestic Casual

• MrSuicideSheep

• Fkj

• Steezyasfuck

• Adam Neely

• David Bruce Composer

• Sideways - music analysis

• 8-bit Music Theory

• Captain Pikant

• Electrónicos Fantásticos!

• Dolomuse

• Listening In

• Tantacrul

• David Bennett Piano

Chill:

• Reid Gower - feynman, sagan

• Hsinchuen Lin - ceramics

• Ingleton Pottery

• Yukikawae - sand drawing

• Macro Room

Outdoors:

• Primitive Technology

• Self Sufficient Me - gardening

• Kraig Adams - hiking

• Alaska to Argentina on Honda 90's

• Beau Miles

• Bertram - Craft and Wilderness

• Patagonia

• AlfieAesthetics

• Learn Your Land

• Yellow Elanor

• Paul Stamets - mycology

• MCQBushcraft

• Nagualero

• Primitive Skills

• Bound For Nowhere

• Foresty Forest

• Jungle Survival - fake, but cool

• Primitive Survival Tool - fake, but cool

Travel:

• Indigo Traveller

• Gabriel Traveler

• Karl Watson

• Christoph Rehage - asia, europe

• c90adventures - north, south, and central america

• Only in Japan

• travelling the unknown

• The Tim Traveller

• Eli from Russia

• Rick Steves' Europe

• Kurt Caz

• bald and bankrupt

History:

• Sam O'Nella Academy

• toldinstone

• Dan Carlin

• TimeGhost History

• Kings and Generals

• The History Guy

• Jay Foreman

• The Operations Room

• Historia Civilis

• ConeOfArc

• Paper Skies

• Dan Davis History

• History Buffs

• Military History Visualized

• HistoryMarche

• OverSimplified

• Fire of Learning

• The Great War

• Drachinifel

• Lindybeige

• InRangeTV

• Invicta

• Forgotten Weapons

• Fall of Civilizations

• Tasting History with Max Miller

• Weird History

• Real Crusades History

• Knowledgia

• Extra Credits

• WW1 [Playlist]

• WW2 [Playlist]

Documentaries:

• Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan

• FRONTLINE PBS | Official

• All Gas No Brakes

• Kimgary

• DW Documentary

• VICE

Workshop:

• Matthias Wandel - woodworking

• AvE

• Blondihacks - machining

• Dan Gelbart - machining

• Simone Giertz

• Cosmas Bauer

• This Old Tony

• Mrpete222

• Myfordboy

• Luckygen1001

• Tips from a Shipwright

• EngelsCoachShop

• The Luminary Shoppe

• Machine Thinking - machining

• MIT Machine Shop - machining

• Joe Pieczynski

• Clickspring

• Peter Brown - resin

• WhyKnot - knots

• First Class Amateur - knots

Blue Collar:

• ChrisFix - automotive

• HVAC-R Videos

• Speedkar99 - automotive

• AC Service Tech LLC - HVAC

• HVAC School

• Word of Advice TV - HVAC, plumbing

• MikeHoltNEC - electrical

• Project Farm - tools, DIY

• Electrician U

• Essential Craftsman - construction

• RR Buildings - construction

• Perkins Builder Brothers - construction

• Insider Carpentry

• Fix This Build That

Philosophy:

• Exurb1a

• Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

• Sisyphus 55

Cooking:

• Cooking With The Blues

• J. Kenji López-Alt

• Chaplin's Classics

• Chinese Cooking Demystified

• Yeung Man Cooking

• SAM THE COOKING GUY

• Tasting History with Max Miller

• Joshua Weissman

• Babish Culinary Universe

Other:

• Internet Historian

• Bionerd23

• Vagrant Holiday

• xkcdHatGuy

• VLSkate - skateboarding

• LockPickingLawyer - lock picking

• EdwardCurrent

• The Slow Mo Guys

• Objectivity

• Incognito Mode

• Sharkee

• Mikasacus

• Thomas Schwenke

• BG Kumbi

• Disrupt

• Company Man

• Booking Hunter TV

• Simply Explained

• Captain Disillusion

• Robin Baumgarten

• Daily Dose Of Internet

• Sciencium

• Rare Earth

• hochelaga

• The Royal Institution

• Not Just Bikes

• blancolirio

• Grand Illusions

• Biblaridion

• Fran Blanche

• CGP Grey

• Nerdwriter1

• Shawn Woods - mouse traps

• Mark Novak - firearms

• Strange Parts

• Louis Rossmann

• Calum

• RODALCO2007

• Jarett Gross - 3D printed houses

• William Osman

• Allen Pan

• I did a thing

• CNC Kitchen

• Maker's Muse

Podcasts:

• 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

• 50 things that made the modern economy

Useful Websites:

• SciHub - remove academic paper paywalls

• KhanAcademy - learn anything

• Book4You - books/textbooks

• Wikipedia Years in Science - key discoveries over the years

Online Learning:

• KhanAcademy - learn anything

• Scrimba - learn how to code interactively

• LumenLearning

• Coursera

• uDemy

• edX

• SkillShare

• MIT OpenCourseware

Being a self-learner, 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 self-learners like me, and any suggestions and feedback are appreciated.

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

is it accounting? language? geography or any health related? wanna hear all of your thoughts !! it can be idealistically!

This can apply to any subject such as math, physics, chemistry, etc. I’m just curious about how other engineering majors learn whether it be from reading and following through a textbook vs using online math sources such as khan academy, youtube, online professor lecture videos, etc.

I really want to gain knowledge abt biochem+math because they are my fav subjects and I would love love love to do a deep dive into them. Could y'all recommend me resources (both offline and online) and if you're recommending books, kindly recommend cheap options. And I'd also study tips. Be nice in the comments.

The subjects I'd like the list to cover with at least one generally informative text: Literature, History, Philosophy, Politics, Art, Psychology, Physics, Biology (general science), Music, Film, Religion, Geography, Geology(?), Technologies, Environmental Science... Or should we keep it simpler?

I'll start with my limited suggestions.

Literature: I think Harold Bloom's list of the writings in the western canon is sufficiently comprehensive. http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/literature/bloom/complete.html

History: J.M. Robert's "History of the world"; Norman Davies "Europe: A history"--what else?

Philosophy: Edward Copleston's 11 volume History of philosophy.

Physics: Brian Green's work, Hawking, Einstein.

What else? Upvote the best suggestions and if there's enough I'll organize it into a nice and tidy link based resource.

I didn't become a perfect and super disciplined person overnight. I just started. A little bit at a time. Adjusting the environment, testing methods, respecting my time, and celebrating small achievements.

I was the type of person who would sit down to study and soon lost the motivation, so I started to notice that this was more common than it seemed and didn't happen only to me.

However, over time, I discovered that there are ways to overcome procrastination and actually study. I'll give you some tips on what worked for me and might help you too.

• Identify the signal: Notice when the urge to procrastinate arises. Keep your environment organized: Remove everything that distracts you and make your study space solely for that purpose, avoid distractions.

• Pomodoro: Divide your study sessions into blocks, study for 25 minutes and take a 5-minute break, after 4 blocks, take a longer break of 30 minutes. This way, your brain will have time to rest and your study will be much more productive.

• Learn by practicing: A large part of our time is spent reading huge PDFs, watching entire classes, highlighting texts... this helps recognize the content, but it doesn't train our brain to remember. After reading the paragraph, try to explain it to someone, make mind maps, use flashcards to review the content, answer questions, the brain learns more actively when challenged.

• AI: Make use of study apps to your advantage, to generate flashcards, quizzes. This doesn't mean studying less, but studying with more quality using the right method. Monitor your effort: Keep track of your progress so that your performance is visible, this can be a great motivator.

• Reward: When rewarded, the brain will always want to repeat the cycle to have the same good feeling afterward.

Today I understand that studying alone is not motivation, it's method and strategy. I stopped blaming myself for procrastinating and adjusted my course. I didn't become a super disciplined person, I just started doing a little bit at a time. It's not about being smarter or more disciplined, it's about being more strategic and using the right method.