Best General Learning courses
The 46 General Learning courses programmers recommend to each other on Hacker News, ranked by how many people recommended each one, how strongly, in how many separate threads and over how many years (137 recommendations, 2006 to October 2026). 26 of them are free. How ranking works.
Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects
Coursera · beginner · free
Commenters call it a fundamental, quick course that improves study habits and helps with procrastination and retention, and often recommend it before other learning.
Model Thinking
Coursera · beginner · free
Commenters call it insanely useful, the best course on Coursera, and a great introduction to thinking in models, often recommending it as a free course.
The Science of Well-Being
Coursera · beginner · free
Commenters call it an amazing, highly recommended course that covers a lot of happiness research and is free on Coursera.
How to Speak
MIT OpenCourseWare · beginner · free
Commenters call it a must-watch lecture on presentation and public speaking, and say it explains its own tools clearly by following them.
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering (Richard Hamming)
YouTube · intermediate · free
Commenters call it an incredible, pure-gold course on how to learn and do science, and recommend the lectures alongside the book.
Computer Programming (Processing.js)
Khan Academy · beginner · free
Commenters call it an easy entry point for first-time programmers because it needs no setup and lets learners build visual applications right away.
Pinch Hitter Course
AOPA · beginner
Commenters recommend it as a practical way for non-pilot passengers to learn emergency landing basics, noting it has reportedly saved lives when pilots suffer heart attacks.
Programming Fundamentals
Coursera · beginner · free
Commenters describe it as a very good class on how to think as a programmer and a perfect intro that does not depend on any one language.
Thomas Keller Teaches Cooking
MasterClass · mixed · paid
Commenters call the cooking classes really good and say they would recommend it to anyone, though one notes it is slow-paced and calm compared with more energetic cooking shows.
Internet History, Technology, and Security
Coursera · beginner · free
Commenters call it a great, lightweight introduction to internet history with interviews and archival footage, feeling more like an interactive documentary than a class.
Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills
The Great Courses · beginner · paid
Commenters recommend it as a starting point for learning critical thinking, and one says it helped them spot where their mind was running on autopilot.
SAT Prep
Khan Academy · beginner · free
Commenters point to it as world-class SAT prep available for free, and as a sensible baseline for the roughly 20 hours of prep that College Board suggests.
Biology: The Science of Life
The Great Courses · beginner · paid
Commenters describe it as thorough and well-tied-together, with a lot of detail on the cell machinery, genetics and central dogma, and say it is worth starting with.
Crash Course World History
YouTube · beginner · free
Commenters describe it as highly recommended for learning history in an entertaining way and say its content is generally good.
Learning to Learn (Richard Hamming)
YouTube · mixed · free
Commenters call it an awesome 31-part course and describe it as a wonderful companion to Hamming's talk "You and Your Research".
What It's Like to Work in AI Right Now
Stanford University · beginner · free
Commenters describe it as a fantastic lecture with golden, actionable career advice from Andrew Ng and Laurence Moroney.
solveIT
Answer.ai · mixed
Commenters say it teaches how to learn and solve problems in a way that stays valuable as AI takes over more coding, rather than encouraging delegating everything to AI.
Time Management Fundamentals
LinkedIn Learning · beginner · freemium
Commenters say it was highly effective for fixing time-management problems similar to those of a burnt-out, directionless reader, and that it takes only two sittings.
10 Day Vipassana Course Discourses (S.N. Goenka)
YouTube · beginner · free
One commenter says Goenka's YouTube lectures were far clearer than other material on the practice and left a strong impression.
Superlearner
Udemy · beginner · paid
One commenter highly recommends it and says the loci method is extremely useful for remembering lists, though less so for abstract information.
Science & Cooking Public Lectures
Harvard University · beginner · free
One commenter calls it their favorite Harvard lecture series, praising it alongside other online resources.
Nicos Weg
Deutsche Welle (DW) · beginner · free
A commenter heartily recommends it for beginners, noting it is free and that its likeable characters and consistent storyline set it apart from typical language classes.
Handwriting Repair
Kate Gladstone · beginner
One commenter points to it as the starting point for improving handwriting, alongside switching to felt-tip or fountain pens.
Developing Chess Intuition
Chessable · beginner · paid
One commenter lists it among the Chessable courses they are "quite fond of" for lower-rated players, alongside the "Art of..." series.
The Art of Chess
Chessable · beginner · paid
One commenter lists it among Chessable courses they are fond of, specifically the "Art of..." series for lower-rated players.
Joy of Living
Tergar International · beginner · free
One commenter recommends it as an intro to Vajrayana practice, and it is mentioned only in passing within a longer personal account of meditation study.
Guitar Courses (Justin Sandercoe)
JustinGuitar · beginner · free
One commenter calls Justin Sandercoe's course series "excellent" and used it alongside Rocksmith 2014 while learning guitar during Covid.
The Everyday Guide to Wine
The Great Courses · beginner · paid
One commenter suggests it as a deeper resource for learning the vocabulary used to describe wine flavors.
Understanding Complexity
The Great Courses · beginner · paid
One commenter says it changed how they view everyday life, from traffic to physiology, though they found it hard to name a specific change it caused.
Life Design
Stanford University · beginner
One commenter recommends it as a structured aid for self-reflection while restarting a tech career.
Poker at Hopkins
Johns Hopkins University · beginner
Commenters describe it as a good introduction to poker, built by a professor who had collected poker resources for years.
Hour of Code
Code.org · beginner · free
One commenter used it as the first step for their child at age five, followed by Blockly Games and then Khan Academy JavaScript.
Record Badass Screencasts
egghead.io · beginner · free
One commenter points to it, along with the companion article, as free practical tips for making screencasts, mainly in the context of recording tutorials.
Intro to Programming with Python
Udacity · beginner
One commenter recommends it as a starting point for people who are not already comfortable coding in general.
Introduction to Biology (genetics)
MIT OpenCourseWare · beginner · free
One commenter, a CS graduate who took it after their degree, recommends it as the foundational biology step before neuroscience and says understanding biology was more informative than learning new programming concepts.
Classic Readings in Computer Science (Harry Lewis)
Harvard Extension School · beginner
Commenters point to it as a guided route into the foundational CS papers, and note that non-enrolled people can follow along.
Piano Intro Course
Udemy · beginner · paid
A commenter says there are some great intro courses on Udemy that are often discounted to about $10, and that they found the experience thrilling.
How to Learn Math: For Students
Coursera · beginner
A commenter points to it as a useful resource on procrastination and productive study habits, referring to it as the "How we learn" course.
Creative Problem Solving
Coursera · beginner
Commenters say they had a great time with the class projects and find the tools useful for generating innovative solutions in daily life.
Chess Lecture Series (Ben Finegold)
YouTube · mixed · free
Commenters point to Ben Finegold's lectures specifically, calling him a great teacher who is very entertaining.
Lypur Music Theory Video Course
YouTube · beginner · free
Commenters list it among specific recommended resources alongside books and websites for learning music theory.
How to Learn Math
Stanford University · beginner · free
Commenters point to it as a short, useful guide to how to approach learning math, though it does not teach mathematics directly.
Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course
YouTube · beginner · free
Commenters point to it as a practical way to learn basic cooking techniques through simple, step-by-step recipes.
FSI Basic Spanish Course
Foreign Service Institute · beginner · free
One commenter points to it as the course to start with for learning basic Spanish, suggesting the "Basic" track is the right fit for a beginner.
Learning Creative Learning
MIT Media Lab · mixed · free
One commenter contrasts it with a Coursera course, calling it much more vibrant and engaging because of its live video, readings, discussion, and shared activities.
CS1101
Udacity · beginner
One commenter suggests it as the place to start for a math major who wants to get into programming quickly, before moving on to harder courses.