I’ve had this post kicking around in my head for about a week now with resources and articles that I’ve cultivated for a while now, but has really become salient for me in the last week as I began to realize how thin I was spreading myself and how much I needed to refocus and reprioritize.

19 Useful Websites

Medium.com has a list of 19 useful websites that are dedicated to learning here

The list covers everything from lectures, classes, workshops, world wonders, etc… It really is a list of a ton of cool stuff that everyone should peruse through and enjoy if they have the time. I know I’m an addict of /r/lectures, even if the subreddit is a bit slow for new material, I know that I’ve found a ton of good lectures/lecture series on there such as Wes Cecil which is incredibly good, conversational, and relateable for discussing deeply philisophical topics/philosphers.

How to be Smarter Than People Smarter Than You

Todd Brison brings a HUGE secret in how to be engaged/intelligent in a fast paced world: READ. No, seriously read. With ~1/3rd of high school graduates never reading another book after they graduate(and reportedly ~40% of college graduates never read a book after they graduate), as well as the general decline of the “American Book Lover”, reading about a variety of subjects is a great way to get ahead. Brision has a number of suggestions and topics to further research and understand.

Using the 5/25 Rule to learn to say “No”

This article was incredibly useful to me to help me get a ‘big picture’ handle on the direction of my life and where I want it to go overall. The article is a series of anecdotes/personal narratives about how saying ‘yes’ consistently can cost someone, not just in terms of time, but also financially and in terms of relationships. The real wisdom of the article comes from the suggestion to use the Warren Buffet method of listing out/writing out the top 25 things someone wants to do with their life.

Then take the top 5, and never look at the bottom 20 again.

This method of prioritization helped me clear up and focus on what I wanted after mulling through things for about a week. As the author James Altucher points out “ “Yes” steals years of your life. You never get them back. “No” adds years.”

You can read the full article here

The Steak Dinner Clause

Ryan Holmes tells a great business story about the value of comprimise and how it can help everyone involved. The crux of the story/moral of the story is that it is still possible to use what seems like a losing position to leverage more long term successes.
You can read the full story here

Learning Smart, Not Hard

This post from Append-To offers some good insight in regards to approaching learning a new subject(not just coding). The key takeaways are that spaced repetition(especially small bits at a time as opposed to cramming) and self testing are the most effective with interleaving(different practice methods), self-explanation, and elaborate interrogation/questioning of the subject matter being a close second.

Randy Pausch

The following lectures from Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon CS Department fame, illustrate the power of prioritization and time management, and have been really effective in guiding me.
Lecture 1: Last Lecture-Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Lecture 2: Time Management

Must Know Web Development

This video from LearnCode Academy more than any other really helped me conceptualize and fit together what I’ve been learning from The Odin Project, and also does a great job of where one might want to go after learning certain languages, frameworks, etc… They also have some really great playlists/series on their Youtube channel as well.