Listening to podcasts or watching videos, I hear people knowing things and it makes me want to get in on the action, but I have no idea where to start. What book do I need to read to start being knowledgeable?
Listening to podcasts or watching videos, I hear people knowing things and it makes me want to get in on the action, but I have no idea where to start. What book do I need to read to start being knowledgeable?
YouTube -> Wikipedia -> academic books on libgen and scihub -> primary sources
I do multiple passes because it's more interesting and you get your bearings faster, so you don't have to rely on poorly sourced beginner materials. For any given topic, I'd probably watch a couple of videos on youtube, open a bunch of wikipedia tabs, pull up a map, browse libgen or b-ok.cc and look at the tables of contents of some books from oxford or whatever, and read some snippets from memoirs and other primary sources. Doing that will build a pretty good foundation to learn more. IMO it's a more natural way to study than the chapter-by-chapter way you learn in school.