I'm sure these lists are well meant, but these days I find that quality and especially quality in relation to time that's the problem when learning new things.

I'm sure these lists are well meant, but these days I find that quality and especially quality in relation to time that's the problem when learning new things. What I've been doing for years is to look at the course curriculum at schools known to take the subject I want to learn seriously and try and find the few essential books on the subject. Then get the one I feel suits my style of learning and learn (how you do this is also individual) the basics while still not taking everything at face value. When you have acquired that "common knowledge" the whole field usually opens up and you can quite quickly see what will be relevant for you among pappers, talks, projects etc. A large amount of knowledge, especially in software development, is just rehashing of basics made to sound more interesting than it really is.