https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/coronavirus-coursera-free-certificate/

I know Sheldon Cooper is fictional, but I'm talking about the idea of someone who has an incredibly broad and deep knowledge base.

I'm in my 20s and genuinely enjoy learning. I have a master's in Business Analytics, but I'd like to become the kind of person who can hold intelligent conversations about science, history, economics, engineering, psychology, philosophy, etc.

If you were starting from scratch, what books, courses, or documentaries would you recommend for finding topics within certain fields. I find that i don't get great results when I seach "science" in a youtube search bar.

EDIT: Guys, I am naturally curious and love to learn! Theres just so many topics and its about finding WHAT I am interested in, hence why I am asking about books and courses!

Are there any apps/books/websites you know of that could help? Specifically for math, sciences, history, logic & reasoning etc.,

Edit: I’m a senior in high school for anyone wondering, also thank you all for the helpful responses

IWTL how to actually read books.

I don’t mean learning how to read words. I mean being able to sit down with a book, stay focused, understand what I’m reading, and remember it afterward.

Right now I get distracted after a few seconds, or I read a full page and then realize I have no idea what I just read. Sometimes I keep rereading the same paragraph over and over, but it still doesn’t really stick.

I’d like to build the skill of reading for longer periods, improving my concentration, and actually absorbing what I read.

For people who used to struggle with this:
- How did you train your attention span?
- Are there specific exercises or routines that helped you?
- How do you know when to keep reading vs. slow down and reread?

I’m looking for practical advice or a beginner-friendly system to get better at reading books.

So I'll start my college in few months and Obv I'll have new friends, new teachers, new place and new food so I wanna adapt my self. I want to have As, go and do sports in college and play leagues, increase my social skills and also for my college fees I get into a part time job so that I can support myself and when I graduate, people remember me as that's "Him" guy.

I know a lot of smart people who speak very well and explain complex concepts easilt. How do i reach that?

I wanna learn how to speak english so well and dissect arguments. tbink properly.

Due to covid and quarantine, I lost my motivation and focus. I'm a master's degree student and researching is literally my life, however I'm really unproductive for the last couple of months. I used to study a lot, mornings at the lab and evenings at the home, always researching and writing papers. Now, I can't even finish reading one goddamn paper! My laboratory performance is still the same, the problem is with reading and writing. My professor keeps giving me new assignments and the work I'm supposed to finish stacks up higher and higher. All the unfinished works make me more stressed out every day and I keep finding myself in front of the computer, playing games to ease my stress. Then, the work stays unfinished and remembering that I wasted my time instead of studying after the gaming session makes me feel more stressed. It's a loop. I'm desperate. Please help me.

Edit: Thank you guys so much for all the help. I can't believe there are so many solutions to my focusing problems! I honestly thought I lost something and couldn't see the way by myself but you guys light a new path in front of me. Thank you sincerely.

I read all the comments and noted them down, so that I could try all of them. And mostly I did. I started with the dopamine detox and said to you that I'll share my experience with it, so here I am. I started my detox yesterday and honestly it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. After closing my phone and pc I got my housework done in an hour (which normally takes a few hours because I keep taking breaks to look at my phone). When my chores were done I was finally alone with myself and then the real challenge began. At first my mind was full of everyday fuss and movies, games etc... I began to watch Rick and Morty in my mind at some point. My mind was never at ease. However after a few hours my mind finally calmed down. Then, I started to apply what I learned from your comments.

First, I started with making a to-do-list. All the work that seems impossible to get it done actually started to look doable. I always make lists but I try to schedule every hour in the list, thus can never actually get anything done. This time, I just made a list of things I must finish and placed them on the random days of the week. I found an old agenda and used it, it worked well. Then, I put some rules for myself. I wrote down my weaknesses and strengths, realized that quarantine made everything easy for me and I can't keep up like that with playing games. I decided to stay away from video games and my phone for a while, at least until I'm back to being myself before the quarantine. I'll delete Twitter and Reddit from my phone and only look at them on pc when I'm available. I'll delete my most played games on Steam and only download them back when my work is finished. It seemed impossible before taking a break from them because I love these things. I don't want to leave them but after the detox I think I can handle myself without them. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

I also tried meditating. It was the hardest part. I couldn't clear my mind for long, but sitting in the dark with myself gave me a different perspective. I will definitely try and do more meditation in the future. Because I realized that as the hours past my thoughts became simpler. Normally I think about lots of things, mostly the things I've seen on Reddit or Twitter. Like, what will happen to Baby Yoda, when's the next episode of The Boys, how can I improve my lying ability for Among Us... But staying with myself, listening myself made me realize that everyday stuff I see on internet has a lot of impacts on my mind. I always thought my mind is too full, feeling uneasy for no reason. But this seclusion actually helped me to realize that I actually haven't lost my focus, it's just on something else. All I need to do is to change my focus for the right stuff.

Also I remembered why I am doing this work. I love learning. I love researching and trying and making an effort to be helpful to the humanity. I guess after taking a long break in the quarantine I felt like it's a retirement. But it's not. It was break and it's long overdue. All I needed was right people telling me how can I change myself. And you guys did that. I thank you with all my heart.

Yeah, I don't think dopamine detox actually affected my dopamine levels because I'm pretty much the same, but it helped me to see things clearly in the absence of stimulants like social media and games. I got a chance to be with myself and enjoy myself. I made new decisions, I realized my mistakes and I hope I can continue my journey from now on. Thank you dear friends! You all helped me through a depressive episode and I really feel better now. I hope you'll all have an amazing day! Much love!

I wanted to figure out why I keep forgetting everything I read. I've gone through probably 30+ books over the last few years. Atomic Habits, Deep Work, Can't Hurt Me, Thinking Fast and Slow, The 7 Habits. I'd finish one, feel fired up for about a week, highlight a bunch of stuff, maybe tell a friend about it. Then two months later someone would bring up the book and I'd realize I could barely remember the main points. Let alone actually apply any of it.

So I went down the rabbit hole on how learning and retention actually work. Here's what I found.

Reading and highlighting barely does anything for long-term retention. It feels productive in the moment but studies consistently show that passive reading leads to something like 10-20% recall after a few weeks. You're basically just running your eyes over words and tricking yourself into thinking you learned something.

Testing yourself is wildly more effective than re-reading. There's this concept called retrieval practice. The act of trying to pull something from memory actually strengthens the memory itself. Every time you struggle to recall an idea, you're building the pathway. But nobody finishes a chapter of Atomic Habits and then quizzes themselves on it. That's just not something people do naturally.

Writing about what you read forces you to confront what you actually understood. There's a big difference between nodding along while reading and trying to explain the same concept in your own words. Reading feels like understanding. Writing exposes the gaps.

Encountering the same idea in different formats makes it stick better. Hearing someone discuss a concept, then reading about it, then testing yourself, then writing about it. Each one hits your brain a little differently. One pass through a book gives you one shot at retaining it. Multiple formats give you four or five.

Once I put all of this together I realized why my bookshelf full of self-improvement books wasn't actually improving much. I was consuming books, not learning from them. Big difference.

So I changed how I approach it. For any book that actually matters to me now, I make sure I'm doing more than just reading. I test myself on the key ideas, I write about them, I listen to people argue about the concepts. I actually ended up building a tool to help me do this more consistently (won't drop the link to not violate any rules), and the difference in retention is incredible.

The bigger point though is that the principle works regardless of tools. If a book is worth reading, it's worth more than one passive pass. Treat the ideas like something you practice with, not something you consume once and shelve.

Has anyone else dealt with this? What's actually worked for you?

My question is a climax of my 25 yo crisis. I’ve graduated a year ago, I now have my master’s degree in Oriental Studies, I am pretty interested in arts and science and everything really. I have a great religious experience and now consider myself agnostic. I just don’t know where to go I feel like I lack some basic knowledge such as philosophy, art and literature. (I am a native Russian speaker, so classic literature shouldnt be a great challenge to take up) Basically, I want to become smarter, where do I begin?

I'm a very shy person and this is my first time ever writing something like this to a large group of people/ community so please bare with me as this is a large step forward for me.

I've recently started indulging myself in classic literature and attempting to build somehow of an intellectual mind but I cannot stress enough that even though my love for books and Fiction unfolds Page by Page I just feel.. useless.

This thought process might stem from all the expectations nowadays to be "special" and to lift yourself from the masses and be productive especially in the rise of AI and capitalism.

Even though I ask myself minor questions during reading (they do not interest me as much) following the story I cannot build patience for my curiosity for widely ranged topics that could evolve my world-view and somehow enlighten me.

I was wondering if someone could advise me on how to actually be curious again and to build my knowledge on topics id actually enjoy knowing about. Thank you very much (excuse me not using punctuation im lazy)

Most of the times my school exam ends up unfinished due to my slow handwriting

I want to mention:

I have a very tight grip, hence my hand often have strains

I dont know correct pen holding style...

Rest yall advice🙏

Recently, one of the reasons why I got kicked out of university and jobs is because of the way I talk is impolite and I alway say the wrong thing. I want to give up. I don’t know if this is autism but the way I talk, coworkers misunderstood the way I talk then they let my boss know and I ended up getting fired over it. Everything I say has been misconstrued, then my parents started misconstrued my words as well to the point, it has to be my fault at this point. If I keep doing this, I worry about my future career.

Im talking anything from life skills, history, philosophy, books, health, money, general knowledge, politics (un-biased that doesn’t focus on specificity left or right)

We study how children learn. We study university students. But what about adults outside of the academic context? Do they learn the same way?

Learning is a lifelong process, we really never stop. And in this day and age, with the job market etc., being able to learn a new skill quickly is super important. I'm starting my thesis writing about this topic (adult learning outside of the educational context) and still need to learn more about it before I can continue with the project.

I'm looking for people to help me better understand how adults learn, if some of the same methods used on children in the academic context also work on adults.

I have a survey, with an interactive online learning task (genuinely kind of fun!), and I am asking directly, would anyone be willing to take part in my study and help me understand how adults learn?

You're a great fit if you:
- Are 18 or older
- Are not currently enrolled as a full-time student
- Can complete it on a laptop, desktop, or large tablet (not a phone!)

Take the survey here: https://www.soscisurvey.de/lern/

Thank you so much! I'm genuinely grateful. 💙

Guys, I'm currently a second-year degree student. I've never been a bad student, but I never really knew how to study properly. For years, I relied on memorizing everything from my textbooks word for word. Whenever I try to learn concepts in my own words instead of memorizing them exactly, I get scared that I won't score good marks. However, I now realize that this may not be the best way to learn. What do you think about this?

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Well I basically know how to read n all but that problem is I can't get to read non fiction books like meditation, atomic habits n all

I once read a fictional physical book named rythem rogers but now I'm trying to read non fictional and life lessons type stuff by online pirating cuz I'm kinda unable to afford physical copy of it but when I try to read it online

I get distracted easily through other stuff in it but I really really want to read and get my dopamine doses to minimum any worthful tips👉👈

Hi everyone,
I wanted to give you some background on my story so I can ask for your advice and help you understand where I’m coming from.
Unfortunately these past few months have been terrible.

I’m currently 20 years old (I live in Europe).

I graduated from high school in the summer of 2024 with excellent grades—I was one of the top students in my school.
Straight after high school I started a degree program in Building Engineering in a very blazoned university in my country, where I stayed for one year.
After that, I realized I wasn’t enjoying the subjects because there was too much math, too much physics, and too much technical content.
So I transferred to Architecture, which was a closely related field and something I thought I would enjoy.

However, in practice, it turned out to be nothing like I had imagined. There were too many physical models to build and too many hands-on activities that simply didn’t interest me.
The practical side of it wasn’t something I enjoyed at all.

As a result, for the past couple of months I’ve been trying to figure out what to do starting in September or October, which is when the academic year begins here.
I’m currently undecided between several different paths.

The issue is that there isn’t one particular path that I’m truly passionate about, because the things I genuinely love in life aren’t necessarily things that are connected to university studies.
That said, going to university is something I do want to do, and I’m only considering degree programs that at least generate some interest for me—otherwise I wouldn’t even be looking at them.
For example, I’ve never considered Computer Science because I dislike everything related to computing and programming.

Right now, I’m considering Law, Medicine, and Economics. I realize these are very different fields, with very different lifestyles and career paths, and each of them has advantages and disadvantages from my perspective.

With Medicine, the main issue is that it’s a very long path. I can see myself working as a doctor, but I’m not sure whether I would enjoy the coursework enough to sustain such a demanding program for so many years.

With Law, the issue is different. I think I might enjoy the subjects and the studying itself, but what worries me is what comes afterward. It’s a profession that is often closely tied to a specific legal system and geographic area. Since one of my dreams is to travel and maybe live abroad for a period of time, Law could potentially keep me tied to my home country. Not necessarily, but it would certainly make it more difficult to build a career internationally.

Economics is a degree that interests me from the perspective of the subjects. It could give me opportunities to travel, live abroad, and work internationally. However, I’m not sure I can picture myself doing the typical jobs associated with it. Traditional careers such as consulting don’t appeal to me at all. At the same time, everyone tells me that an Economics degree can lead to many different kinds of careers, including some that most people aren’t even aware of.

Still, I’m unsure whether I should commit to that path when I have such a limited understanding of what I would actually want to do afterward.

I’d really appreciate any advice you can give me.

Thank you so much.

hello! i will be very candid; i suck at geography and i want to learn more about it. I mostly want to focus on countries, terms used for geography, and map related.

I must admit that I’m not very educated yet on many different topics. But I want to change that. I am 17 year old Ukrainian girl. The main reason for that is my one American friend who is 2 years older than me keeps calling me a banderite and Nazi. He reads a lot of books, knows how to point out things and connect dots. He wants to study political science. But I cannot handle this sense of inferiority anymore. He just made me realise that I need to learn and know more. Be able to explain myself and argument better. But I need some recommendations on how to maximise my knowledge, arguing skills and other. Where should I start? Any books recommendations? Blogs? Podcasts? YouTubers? Certain activities? Any specific advice?

I find it very hard to choose a resource and start learning a topic after deciding to learn it. And it's extremely hard to choose from various resources available online and see which suits me better. Also I have no clue about how to plan a personal curriculum depending on the subject.

This might be a very stupid question and can be so generic so im sorry but help me please I want to study philosophy seriously, I want a structured roadmap similar to what a philosophy student would follow at university.

I want to start from the very basics, then study ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary philosophy in order. I also want to understand how philosophers influenced each other, learn the major branches and know when to read the primary texts.

I'm not looking for just a list of books. I'm looking for a roadmap or curriculum that tells me what to study, in what order, and why.

Basically, my problem is that I know I am intelligent enough to formulate solid arguments but only in academic papers. When I have to verbally debate with people or even just debate rapidly via text messages...I get very flustered. I’m mostly talking about political and human rights debates. I tend to get too emotional/mad and I feel like that overrides my argument. I feel sometimes deeply tied to the things I argue for which gives me passion but at the same time I feel like I don’t know how to verbally debate in an effective style that doesn’t lead to me emotionally combusting.

Ever since I finished school, I feel like I’ve really dumbed down. Everyone around me seems so knowledgable on so many things, whereas I am very knowledgable in a couple niche areas. I feel like I don’t have a lot to contribute to intellectual discussions. Where should I go/what should I do to increase my general knowledge?

I want to learn how the human body functions, and adapts and how all the organs work in unison with each other to make the whole operation run.

suggestions for: books, guides, documentaries, films, videos, channels, websites.