Similarly to TurnTrout’s point about the sequences, learning logic/computation/ML is certainly relevant to and useful for AI safety, but there are things in Superintelligence which no computer science textbook will tell you. It’s certainly valuable to pick the most useful resources within whatever field you’re trying to study, but picking your field based on which one has the best textbooks seems misguided.
Also, textbooks typically require a great deal more effort than popular science books, so if OP is struggling with motivation for the latter, textbooks are likely to make things worse.
Similarly to TurnTrout’s point about the sequences, learning logic/computation/ML is certainly relevant to and useful for AI safety, but there are things in Superintelligence which no computer science textbook will tell you. It’s certainly valuable to pick the most useful resources within whatever field you’re trying to study, but picking your field based on which one has the best textbooks seems misguided.
Also, textbooks typically require a great deal more effort than popular science books, so if OP is struggling with motivation for the latter, textbooks are likely to make things worse.