00-How to use this folder¶

The two failure modes this folder is designed against¶

Tutorial loop-watching content forever, never building. Every weekly file forces an artifact.
Random walk-picking up topics out of order and bouncing off the prerequisites. The sequence files exist so you always know what's underneath what you're learning.

Each sequence file follows the same structure:

Why this matters in the journey-one paragraph. If you can't explain this in your own words at the end, re-read it.
The rungs-ordered list of skills/topics, basic → advanced. Each rung has:
What it is (one sentence)
Why it earns its place (the role it plays for an AI engineer)
Resources (one primary, optional secondary)
Done when: a behavioral check ("can do X without notes")
The minimum required to leave this sequence-a checklist. If you can't tick all of them, you're not done.
Going further-only after the minimum is done.

Read the "why this matters" paragraph.
Skim all the rungs to see the shape.
Start at the lowest rung you can't already do confidently. Don't review what you already know-your time is finite.
For each rung, do the primary resource and the Done when check. Skip the rung if the check passes already.
When the minimum required checklist is fully ticked, move on. Going further is optional and best done by applying the topic in a real project, not by more reading.

Weekly files reference sequence rungs by ID (e.g., linear-algebra/04: matrix multiplication as composition).
If the week says "rung 04," it means: read that rung, do the Done when check, then start the build.
Sequence files are stable across the year. Weekly files update as you go.

Where a free resource exists, it's listed first.
arXiv papers are referenced by their ID. Paste arxiv.org/abs/<id> into a browser.
Where I list a paid course, the free alternative is right next to it.
"Search for X" instead of a hard URL is intentional when URLs change frequently.