I often write about my ability to learn things extremely quickly. While it may appear to be black magic, there is nothing to it. I’m simply making effective use of the information provided by the internet.

The following is a list of resources that have bean extremely useful to me.

• Wikipedia

  When you first come across a new subject and want a basic grounding in it, the first place you should go is Wikipedia. While it is often cited as an untrustworthy source, as it is written by the general public, the information it contains provides an extremely good overview of almost every subject known to man.

• E-Books

  If you want in depth, technical information about something one of the best sources are E-Books and downloadable PDF articles. These are often free, but some are only available through payment. This mainly depends on the nature of the subject, papers covering technical things such as programming are normally free, less technical media is often payed.

• Specialist Websites and Blogs

  Another excellent source of detailed information are specialist websites and Blogs. The vast majority of the content on such websites is free, though you normally have to spend a lot of time digging through archives. Some web masters sell e-books consisting of a websites archives re-written and formatted, making it more accessible.

• Audio Podcasts

  Textual content is an awesome learning resource, but it demands your full attention and has limited portability. Optimal learning involves making effective use of your down time, time that would otherwise be wasted. This includes things like waiting in queues and commuting. Listening to audio podcasts is an extremely effective way of doing this.

  There are podcasts available for free covering everything you would want to know. Additionally, unlike traditional media like TV and radio, they do not suffer from “dumbing down’ in order to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

• Youtube

  Like everything, text and audio have there limitations, some things are just better explained through the use of images. While you can include images in written content, video is almost always superior.

  Amongst all of the useless junk on Youtube, there are a large number of extremely useful educational videos. These range from people demonstrating unusual techniques which can be used in some software, to recordings of conference talks.

  Video is the `highest bandwidth’ in terms of its ability to explain things, but it is also the least portable. Video demands your full attention, making it difficult to slot into your dead time. But used sparingly it can be an extremely useful resource.