Trove: Free Learning for Anyone Who Needs It Free

When I first started teaching myself things, I had no idea where to even begin. I didn't know what to learn first, how to structure it, or which resources were actually worth my time versus which ones were just going to waste it. I figured it out eventually, but it took way longer than it should have, mostly because nobody handed me a starting point.

The other thing that's always bothered me is that learning shouldn't have a price tag on it for people who genuinely can't afford one. Not everyone can pay for a course, and that shouldn't be the thing standing between someone and learning what they want to learn.

Those two things together are why I built Trove. It's a directory of learning resources. You pick a topic - programming, design, electronics, drawing, computer basics, whatever it is - and you get a short list of things that will actually teach you, for free, instead of spending an hour digging through search results that dead end at a paywall three chapters in.

This isn't the finished version of what I want this to be. It's the first step. I want it to grow past just me picking resources, into something a community actually builds together.

• Demo Live site: bits232.github.io/Trove
• Code Repo: github.com/Bits232/Trove

How I Built It

The site is one page. No backend, no database. Every resource lives in a resources.json file, and the page just reads it and renders it.

I wanted adding a resource to be almost frictionless, so if you want to add one, you can open that file right on GitHub and edit it in the browser - no login, no separate form. It turns into a pull request automatically.

Each entry follows the same shape:

{
  "title": "Name",
  "format": "video",
  "desc": "One sentence on what it teaches and why it's good",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "tag": "example.com"
}

I spent a lot of time on how it actually feels to use, not just whether it works. I built it around a card catalog idea - browsing by topic feels like pulling open a drawer, and each resource shows up like an index card. I wanted it to feel like a reference desk somebody actually built with care, not another generic dashboard with a search bar slapped on it.

I also went back and checked every single resource by hand to make sure it was actually free before it went up. A couple of them weren't - one was a paid book that only offered a few free chapters - so I pulled it and found something that genuinely was free instead. That mattered to me more than having a longer list.

The smaller details got attention too:

• A real favicon
• A proper social preview image so the link doesn't look bare when someone shares it
• Basic analytics through GoatCounter so I can actually tell if people are using it instead of just hoping

What's Next

Anyone can add to this. If you know a good free resource for something, add it, or tell me what's missing. There's a small Discord starting around it too, where people can talk about what to learn and what should be on the shelf next.

I'd rather this grow into something other people helped build than stay something only I ever touch.