abby

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Cooking with flavor bootcamp (used what I learned in this a LOT this year)

Beekeeping 101

Learn Interior Design from the British Academy of Interior Design (free to audit course - just choose the free option when you register)

Video on learning to read music that actually helped me??

How to use and sew with a sewing machine

How to ride a bike (listen. some of us never learned, and that's okay.)

How to cornrow-braid hair (I have it on good authority that this video is a godsend for doing your baby niece's black hair)

Making mead at home (I actually did this last summer and it was SO good)

How to garden

Basics of snowboarding (proceed with caution)

How to draw for people who (think they) suck at art (I know this website looks like a 2003 monstrosity, but the tutorials are excellent)

Pixel art for beginners so you can make the next great indie game

Go (back) to school

Introduction to Astronomy (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Principals of Economics (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Introduction to philosophy (free college course)

Computer science basics (full-semester Harvard course free online)

Learn a language

Japanese for Dummies (link fix from 2022)

Ukrainian

Portuguese (Brazil)

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)

Beginner-oriented video on how to sail

This guy has so many videos on baking different types of bread. SO very many.

Coding in Python - one of the most flexible and adaptable high-level programming languages out there - explained through projects making video games

Learn to swim! (for adult learners. I don’t care if you live in Kansas or Mali or wherever. LEARN TO SWIM.)

Learn how quantum mechanics works. Then read some more about it

[Learn about quantum mechanics again, but in a more advanced engineering/mathematics class. Then read more about the math and physics of it]

Poetry Handbook, by Mary Oliver

Something I learned this year: how to sew a quilt (Here’s a very easy beginning pattern that looks amazing and can be done with pre-cut fabric!)

How to hit the ball in softball

Tutorial video on what is under the hood of most (gas) cars + weird engine sounds and what they mean

Full beginner mechanics technical training, if you want to go more in depth

Playlist on how car engine physics work if you want to go ultra in depth

Lecture series on architecture design through study of buildings

How (American income) taxes & tax law work (choose “audit course” at checkout for free class)

Pickleball for beginners (so you can finally join your neighbor/friend/distant cousin who is always insisting you join their team)

+ Para-Pickleball for beginners (for mobility aid users!)

School is so much more fun when there’s no tests:

American Law - Contracts

Shakespeare’s Life and Plays

Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages, and Morals

Modern Poetry

World History [Part 1, Part 2]

Learn a language:

Arabic + Resource Guide compiled from Reddit (includes info on different dialects)

Chinese (Cantonese) (audio)

Urdu (frequently recommended course on Reddit) + Resource Guide

CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has 4 crossing-point detectors: ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb. This is a totally accurate 100% true absolutely not biased summary of how well they rank in name and logo

ALICE: A Large Ion Collider Experiment

Name: 5/5 (we love a woman in STEM, plus it's a fairly easy and informative acronym)

Logo: 3/5 (simple, cool colours but does look slightly evil, and the fact the lines aren't the same length upsets me)

TOTAL: 8/10

ATLAS: A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS

Name: 3/5 (loving the mythology name, very cool. However, a point has to be deducted from having two letters in the acorynm from 'Apparatus', especially as one is from the end of the word. Another point is deducted from using an acronym in your acronym)

Logo: 5/5 (perfect, and apparently it's also modelled on an actual physicist from the experiment)

TOTAL: 8/10

CMS: Compact Muon Solenoid

Name: 1/5 (it's so boring! You get 1 point for being informative)

Logo: 1/5 (it looks like a child designed it. Where's the pizzazz? I know those are meant to be muon tracks but they really do look like tentacles)

TOTAL: 2/10

LHCb: LHC-beauty

Name: 2/5 (Yes okay it's not really any better than CMS', but the fact it has LHC in the name makes it feel very Important™. The beauty is from the fact its doing bottom quark physics, and bottom quarks are also called beauty quarks and I just think that's neat)

Logo: 2/5 (A Basic Bitch of a logo, though it gets 1 redemption point for the red line suggesting CP violation, which is physicsy and cool)

TOTAL: 4/10

Here are TED Talks that will give you a guide to a successful year

How to learn anything

Power food for the brain

Secret to self-control

Don't be a jerk to yourself

Building your identity capital

Improving your body language

What your future self wants

Saying Yes

Habits of original thinkers

Become the person you can't imagine

Designing the life you want

Be your own life coach

How to talk so that people listen

Curiosity over ambition

Life is your biggest project

i don't know if I'm passionate about what i do because i know a lot about it, or if i know a lot about what i do because I'm passionate about it

Be it Abstract Mathematics or Astrophysics or String Theory, there's some fields of math and science that have no real use for the world or society at large, nor do they pose any monetary benefits.

Researchers do it anyways like an artist paints a painting. It's done for the mental satisfaction of themselves, first and foremost. And then the few people who can appreciate the beauty of the theorem or the discovery marvel at it.