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So8res comments on What are you working on? October 2013 - Less Wrong
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I'm reading through the MIRI course list. I've been reviewing the books as I go. The primary goal is to become capable of working on open problems in FAI. A secondary goal is to provide useful data, both to other readers and to the maintainers of the course list.
With respect to the secondary goal, you are encouraged to chime in on relevant threads with personal reactions to the same books or suggestions for alternative books. On my own, I can only speak for the experience of a single person.
I have often found that teaching a subject improves both comprehension and retention. If you are reading any of the books that I have reviewed and you are having trouble understanding a concept (or if you would like to check your answers to exercises, or if you just want to chat), please PM me. I am by no means an expert on these subjects, but I appreciate any opportunity to articulate what I have read.
A number of people have noted that the course list does not contain the books most relevant to MIRI's current research. I will in fact be taking a number of detours. I've been collecting suggestions from people close to the research, further suggestions are welcome.
You can find the first four book reviews here:
Why do you believe this particular book list is relevant to that goal (other than the list itself suggesting so)? It seems like a set of initial directions that might be useful for someone who knows little on these topics, and otherwise too sparse/arbitrary to be helpful "out of the box", without significant modification. Based on your reviews, you are not in that category.
(Edited to address your clarifications)
I assume that the book list is somewhat relevant, due to the fact that MIRI hosts FAI research groups and cultivates the book list with the stated purpose of outlining relevant subjects. That said, I am not treating the list as sacred.
For one thing, I'm jumping around to the subjects that seem relevant to the current research. (Category Theory and Set Theory were warm-ups for Model Theory, with which I am not familiar.)
For another, as I said in the OP
Luke has already pointed me towards some Provability Theory texts that I plan to read through after finishing Model Theory. The MIRI course list seemed like a good starting place, but I have no qualms about deviating from it.