
Ask HN: What's the most useful online course you have watched? - dexxter
Fellow Hackers, I am bored and want to learn something new.<p>Have you watched any interesting&#x2F;useful online courses recently on Coursera&#x2F;Udemy&#x2F;edX&#x2F;OpenUniversity&#x2F;others?<p>It can be free&#x2F;paid and I am open to any discipline.
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ericzawo
Joel Spolsky did a really good one-hour primer on Excel. If you squirm at the
thought of spreadsheet anything, this video is for you
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nbkaYsR94c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nbkaYsR94c)

~~~
joshschreuder
Just wanted to come back and say thanks for posting this.

I don't think I've ever learnt so many great tips about a program I use quite
frequently in this short of a video.

~~~
ericzawo
I took a course on Excel in high school and was just as shocked as you. It's
an excellent, highly informative video. Pass it on!

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benjismith
There's a really excellent course on starting a startup, from Sam Altman
(President of YCombinator).

[http://startupclass.samaltman.com/](http://startupclass.samaltman.com/)

It was delivered as a live lecture at Stanford, with presentations by Sam
Altman himself, as well as Dustin Moskovitz, Paul Graham, Adora Cheung, Peter
Thiel, Alex Schultz, Kevin Hale, Marc Andreessen, Ron Conway, Parker Conrad,
Brian Chesky, Alfred Lin, Patrick and John Collison, Ben Silbermann, Aaron
Levie, Reid Hoffman, Keith Rabois, Ben Horowitz, Emmett Shear, Hosain Rahman,
Kirsty Nathoo, Carolynn Levy, and Tyler Bosmeny.

My favorite presenter is Reid Hoffman, but all the lectures are awesome. If
you're a startup founder, you owe it to yourself to watch them all...

~~~
liadmat
Second this. You can also get this as a podcast, which is just as easy to
learn from.

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okket
I really enjoyed the free "CS193P" course from Stanford with Paul Hegarty. It
is not 100% up-to-date but still a good start, covering Xcode/iOS8/Swift:

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/developing-ios-8-apps-
swi...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/developing-ios-8-apps-
swift/id961180099)

~~~
gbaygon
I recommend this course whenever I have the opportunity.

I started iOS programming about a year ago and it really helped me with
grasping how to use Auto Layout in XCode, once you learn that the API is easy
to pickup if you have some experience in mobile development.

Swift is a pleasure to use.

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SixSigma
Gilbert Strang's linear algebra

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK3O402wf1c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK3O402wf1c)

Walter Lewin's Classical Mechanics

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo28HOrhipc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo28HOrhipc)

for the content _and_ the delivery

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_kyran
CS50 [https://cs50.harvard.edu/](https://cs50.harvard.edu/)

David Malan in the best lecturer I've ever seen.

Introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art
of programming. This course teaches students how to think algorithmically and
solve problems efficiently. Topics include abstraction, algorithms, data
structures, encapsulation, resource management, security, software
engineering, and web development. Languages include C, PHP, and JavaScript
plus SQL, CSS, and HTML. Problem sets inspired by real-world domains of
biology, cryptography, finance, forensics, and gaming. Designed for
concentrators and non-concentrators alike, with or without prior programming
experience

~~~
sn9
+1.

This was my introduction to CS/programming and is the counterexample to any
claim that C makes for a terrible first language. It just needs a phenomenal
lecturer.

The computing environment gets you going with Linux which avoids IDE
handholding and the recitations and other helpful videos and the forums all
make for a great learning experience, even for people are complete programming
neophytes.

Following it up with something like Coursera's Hardware/Software Interface
would be a great way of cementing the concepts.

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jamesharrington
This is the best javascript video i've ever seen. if you wait they do deals
all the time, no need to pay $200 it will go on sale usually around $15-$20

[https://www.udemy.com/understand-
javascript/](https://www.udemy.com/understand-javascript/)

~~~
adnanc
Just came across this link from the course authors twitter

Javascript: Understanding the Weird Parts - the first 3.5 hours free on
Youtube: [https://youtu.be/Bv_5Zv5c-Ts](https://youtu.be/Bv_5Zv5c-Ts)

Also has the entire course at 87% off

[https://www.udemy.com/understand-
javascript/?couponCode=YOUT...](https://www.udemy.com/understand-
javascript/?couponCode=YOUTUBE19)

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colund
I enjoyed Andrew Ng's Machine Learning course on Coursera. Why don't you give
it a shot.

~~~
Hortinstein
Yes, came here to say this. While I never completed the course (started OMSCS
@ Ga Tech shortly after), it did cement my desire to focus on machine learning
in my graduate studies. Highly recommended!

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abraham_s
CSE341: Programming Languages by Dan Grossman

[http://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse341/13wi/#lectur...](http://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse341/13wi/#lectures)

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askldfhjkasfhd
Coursera, learning how to learn.

~~~
bishes
+1 for "Learning How to Learn". Helpful for improving study habits.

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joshschreuder
These are paid, and not exactly a course but the Destroy All Software
screencasts are great, and cover a lot of topics like shell scripting, VIM /
EMACS, testing, refactoring etc.

[https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts](https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts)

They're by Gary Bernhardt of Wat fame, which is also worth a watch for its
presentation style and amusing content:

[https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat](https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat)

~~~
mjmj
Those are soo good. He has a talent for talking while typing and his style of
presentation keeps you intrigued and content so densely packed it'll keep you
rewinding saying, 'wait, wat was that?'

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unixhero
[https://www.udemy.com/an-entire-mba-in-1-courseaward-
winning...](https://www.udemy.com/an-entire-mba-in-1-courseaward-winning-
business-school-prof/learn/)

~~~
DyslexicAtheist
udemy has some really questionable business practices

~~~
d0lph
go on

~~~
kup0
This may give some insight:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10638795](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10638795)

------
geekfactor
Coursera/UPenn's Aerial Robotics course
([https://www.coursera.org/learn/robotics-
flight](https://www.coursera.org/learn/robotics-flight)) and more broadly the
robotics sequence.

I'm taking now for a diversion (just started) and expect to learn a bit about
quadrotor mechanics, sensors & control systems.

------
quicky123
This guy is an amazing C#/.Net trainer as well as object oriented programming
concepts. Great for people coming from a Javascript background.
[http://www.learnvisualstudio.net/](http://www.learnvisualstudio.net/)

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blabla_blublu
I did Creative Problem Solving through Coursera and had a great time
participating in the class projects.

There are some great tools which you can use in your everyday life to think
innovative solutions to problems. The exercises were incredible fun as well.

[https://www.coursera.org/learn/creative-problem-
solving](https://www.coursera.org/learn/creative-problem-solving)

Another course which I highly recommend is Learning How To Learn
[https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-
learn](https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn)

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kleer001
Anything else from Brady Haran is pretty fun and educational. Not exactly in
the spirit of pedantry and sit-down-and-take-notes, but really fun and
engaging (like all good teachers should be, I say)

[https://www.youtube.com/user/numberphile](https://www.youtube.com/user/numberphile)

[https://www.youtube.com/user/Computerphile](https://www.youtube.com/user/Computerphile)

[https://www.youtube.com/user/sixtysymbols](https://www.youtube.com/user/sixtysymbols)

[https://www.youtube.com/user/periodicvideos](https://www.youtube.com/user/periodicvideos)

etc...

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YesThatTom2
Introduction to Operations Management Professor Christian Terwiesch
brilliantly and understandably explains the math behind "operations".... which
explains Lean, Agile, DevOps and everything from running a restaurant to a
doctor's office.

[https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-
operations](https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-operations)

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rajathagasthya
Algorithms by Robert Segdewick and Cloud Computing Concepts on Coursera. First
is an essential, second is a really good intro into distributed systems.

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martinni
Getting started with GO with Andrew Gerrand. Not only did it teach me the
basics of GO but showing his keystrokes demystified vim as well :)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KmHtgtEZ1s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KmHtgtEZ1s)

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guzmanovich
Robert Sapolsky`s lectures on human behavioral biology.

Fascinating, funny and gives insights into many different topics like cultural
differences and nationalism.

[http://youtu.be/NNnIGh9g6fA?list=PL150326949691B199](http://youtu.be/NNnIGh9g6fA?list=PL150326949691B199)

------
Hortinstein
Artificial Intelligence for Robotics Programming a Robotic Car

Sebastian Thrun (former leader of Google and Stanford's autonomous driving
teams that won the DARPA challenge) teaches a class focusing on the basic
methods in Artificial Intelligence to support autonomous vehicles, including:
probabilistic inference, planning and search, localization, tracking and
control, all with a focus on robotics. Programming examples and assignments
apply these methods to building self-driving car like experiments.

Free course!

[https://www.udacity.com/course/artificial-intelligence-
for-r...](https://www.udacity.com/course/artificial-intelligence-for-robotics
--cs373)

------
blt
CS 61c lectures from UC Berkeley. Computer architecture. Ideal if you are good
with data structures / algorithms but the machine still feels like magic. It
is empowering to understand what the machine is really doing.

------
hackerboos
Ruby on Rails Tutorial by Michael Hartl is a good starter course on Rails.

[https://www.railstutorial.org/](https://www.railstutorial.org/)

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THEUW
Course on programming in R: [https://www.datacamp.com/courses/intro-to-python-
for-data-sc...](https://www.datacamp.com/courses/intro-to-python-for-data-
science)

