Writing added a pick
Real query letters critiqued bluntly by a literary agent. Read the archive before writing yours.
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Every topic is a feed of hand-picked courses, books, and channels — each with a one-line note on why it's worth your time. Follow what you're learning. Check back for new picks.
Popular: Python · Machine Learning · Spanish · Guitar
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Seven areas, thirty topics. Each one is written up by a human editor — with a place to start.
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Writing added a pick
The editor's reference for style and usage. Worth subscribing if you write or edit professionally.
The Chicago Manual of Style Online (opens provider site in a new tab)
The Chicago Manual of Style
Personal Finance added a pick
A deep, data-heavy series on retirement withdrawal rates. For people planning decades ahead.
Personal Finance added a pick
NYU's valuation professor shares courses, data, and spreadsheets free. The gold standard on valuation.
Cooking added a pick
An online culinary school with structured certificate courses. Closest thing to professional training at home.
Video Editing added a pick
Intensive motion design courses for After Effects and Cinema 4D. Demanding and well regarded.
Public Speaking added a pick
A huge archive of great speeches with audio and transcripts. Study how the best build an argument.
Public Speaking added a pick
BYU's encyclopedia of rhetorical devices and figures. The classical toolkit, clearly organized.
Guitar added a pick
Accredited courses and degrees in guitar, theory, and production. The serious formal path.
Cooking added a pick
Vegetables, stocks, and sauces from one of the world's most exacting chefs. Refines your basics.
Sales added a pick
The qualification framework enterprise teams use to forecast deals. Learn its vocabulary before joining one.
Graphic Design added a pick
If you want to design typefaces yourself, Glyphs' free tutorials are the clearest starting point.
Startup Founding added a pick
Scaling from ten to a thousand people: executives, boards, and M&A. For after product-market fit.
Photography added a pick
Essays on master photographers and their methods. Builds visual literacy beyond technique.
SQL & Databases added a pick
Alex Petrov on storage engines and distributed algorithms. A natural companion to CMU 15-445.
Photography added a pick
Contemporary photography from around the world. Keeps your sense of what's possible current.
Photography added a pick
Planning, safety, and storytelling from a leading adventure photographer. Great for outdoor shooters.
Data Science added a pick
The A/B testing reference from Microsoft, Google, and LinkedIn veterans. Essential for product analysts.
Guitar added a pick
Riffs, effects, and creativity from Rage Against the Machine's guitarist. Unconventional and fun.
Statistics added a pick
Hernán and Robins' standard text on causal inference from observational data. Free to download.
Guitar added a pick
A huge library of style-specific courses from pro players, with tabs and jam tracks.
Product Management added a pick
Programs from senior operators on growth, retention, and strategy. Expensive, but dense.
Mandarin added a pick
Official test information and registration. HSK levels give clear long-term milestones.
HSK — Chinese Proficiency Test (opens provider site in a new tab)
Product Design added a pick
Large-scale e-commerce UX research. The free articles alone improve most checkout flows.
Baymard Institute research (opens provider site in a new tab)
Japanese added a pick
Thousands of public-domain Japanese literary works, free. The ultimate advanced reading library.
Mandarin added a pick
China's main video platform, with native content in every niche. Where listening meets real life.
Product Design added a pick
Microsoft's methods and toolkit. Reframes accessibility as a source of better products.
Mandarin added a pick
Classical Chinese texts with translations and dictionary tools. For learners heading toward literature.
Chinese Text Project (opens provider site in a new tab)
Chinese Text Project
Deep Learning added a pick
Intuition-first videos with practical projects. Gentler pacing than fast.ai.
UI/UX Design added a pick
A pattern library in book form: navigation, forms, data display. A reference you'll keep returning to.
Pinned · Start here
Japanese recommends starting with
Tofugu's Learn Hiragana guide gets the first Japanese writing system into your head in days rather than weeks, using memorable picture mnemonics for each character and a sensible order of study. It's free, well illustrated, and followed by an equally good katakana guide. Learning kana first means every other resource in this feed becomes usable — you'll read real Japanese from the start instead of leaning on romanization. Do a few characters a day and review them the next morning.
Pinned · Start here
Personal Finance recommends starting with
Khan Academy's Personal Finance course covers the building blocks in plain language: budgeting and saving, how interest and credit work, loans and mortgages, insurance, taxes, and the basics of investing and retirement accounts. Short videos come with practice questions, and nothing is selling you anything — which is rarer than it should be in this topic. Some examples are US-specific, but the concepts apply almost everywhere. Work through the units that match your current situation first.
Pinned · Start here
Public Speaking recommends starting with
Patrick Winston's "How to Speak" is a one-hour MIT lecture that has become a cult classic, and it deserves the reputation. Winston, who taught at MIT for decades, packs in concrete, memorable rules: how to start (with an empowerment promise, not a joke), how to structure slides, how to use props and the board, and how to end so people remember you. It's free on YouTube and on MIT OpenCourseWare. Watch it with a notebook, then apply three of his rules to your next presentation.
Pinned · Start here
Spanish recommends starting with
Language Transfer's Complete Spanish is a free audio course recorded as a real lesson between a teacher and a student. Instead of memorizing phrases, you learn how Spanish is built — how English words convert, how verbs change — and you construct sentences out loud from the first few minutes. Pause before each answer and say it yourself; that effort is the method. It takes you surprisingly far into grammar, and pairs perfectly with daily listening from Dreaming Spanish.
Complete Spanish (Language Transfer) (opens provider site in a new tab)
Language TransferPinned · Start here
UI/UX Design recommends starting with
Google's UX Design Professional Certificate is the most structured on-ramp into the field we know. It walks through the whole process — empathizing with users, defining problems, ideating, wireframing, prototyping in Figma, and running usability studies — and has you produce three portfolio projects along the way, which matters more to employers than the certificate itself. It assumes no prior experience. Financial aid is available on Coursera, and you can pace it around a job.
Pinned · Start here
Cooking recommends starting with
Serious Eats is where we'd send anyone who wants to cook better at home, because its recipes explain why they work. Tested repeatedly and often backed by side-by-side experiments, articles cover everything from searing steak to making stock to cooking rice, with the technique front and center. You'll learn transferable lessons — why you salt meat early, why pans need to be hot — while making dinner. Browse the technique guides first, then pick a recipe per week and read the whole explanation before starting.
Pinned · Start here
Digital Marketing recommends starting with
HubSpot Academy's Inbound Marketing course is free, well-produced, and comes with a certificate that's recognized in many marketing job listings. It explains how content, SEO, social media, and email work together to attract people and turn them into customers — the mental model most modern marketing runs on. Yes, it's made by a company that sells marketing software, and the examples lean that way, but the fundamentals are sound and tool-agnostic. It's the best free overview before you specialize.
Pinned · Start here
Guitar recommends starting with
JustinGuitar's beginner course is the best free guitar course we know of, and many teachers quietly recommend it too. Justin Sandercoe organizes lessons into grades, each introducing a few chords or skills with practice routines and songs to apply them. He focuses heavily on the unglamorous basics — finger placement, chord changes, rhythm — that decide whether you'll still be playing a year from now. The website and videos are free; the optional app adds play-along practice. Follow it in order and don't skip the practice routines.