We started Holloway because we felt let down. The internet we grew up imagining—one where anyone could find anything, learn anything—didn’t turn out so hot. The internet enabled anyone to freely publish just about anything. This was the best of times. This was the worst of times. Out of this explosion of knowledge, we got the wisdom of the crowd, but we also got the foolishness of popups, banner ads, and how-to articles written by who-knows-who.

Today, learning on the internet is a long and winding scavenger hunt. We sometimes stumble on that rare reliable source, other times are forced to accept something that “seems legit,” and otherwise still do our best to filter out flat out falsehoods. The thing is, others have faced and overcome almost all the big challenges we face in our life and work. But in lieu of having access to the knowledge of those who’ve been there and done that before, we’re left to run on an endless treadmill reinventing wheels and tumbling down pitfalls. So we decided to devote ourselves to building a corner of the internet that provides access to the consolidated wisdom of experts.

At Holloway, we publish comprehensive Guides on how to navigate complicated challenges of modern work. Maybe one day we’ll publish on subjects outside of work, but for now our goal is to offer a reliable well of work-related know-how for you to keep coming back to. Reading a Guide by Holloway should be like having a stable of experts at your disposal.

Our Guides will help you orient yourself in a complex landscape. We’ll help you solve specific problems and help you avoid looking silly because you don’t know some industry jargon or common practice. You’ll get a leg up from the experience of other dedicated learners who happened to show up a few years or decades before you, or who had privileged access to knowledge. You shouldn’t have to climb the same mountain they did—their knowledge should be your foundation. We’ll help you avoid mistakes that can cost you thousands in legal fees or years off your life.

Each Guide might be 200–300+ pages, but we’ve made sure to break each one down into sections you can read over your lunch break or in-between putting the kids to bed and passing out.

We create every Guide by corralling experienced and proven experts—the best, most knowledgeable folks we can find on a topic—along with professional editors, and the feedback of those actively engaged in navigating these challenges in the wild. We pore over original sources (articles, books, papers, interviews, and more), go back and forth, reconcile differing opinions, showcase disagreements, integrate feedback, and publish with the goal of updating the work over time.

While our first Guide was free, all other Guides will be available by paid access. Our Guides take months—sometimes years—of research, writing, fact-checking, and editing, and we believe the people involved deserve to earn a good living for their work. On top of this, we promise not to run advertising or sell your data so our incentives are aligned with yours—if we don’t help you, you won’t pay us, and we’ll be forced to get better.

The internet isn’t broken, it’s still growing up.

—The Holloway Team