There are two opposite mindsets you can take to a book like this. One is to approach it like the book owed you something concrete. Like a calculus 101 textbook

There are two opposite mindsets you can take to a book like this. One is to approach it like the book owed you something concrete. Like a calculus 101 textbook or worse yet, "Javascript the good parts". But if you approach anything sufficiently interesting (take a more advanced math book -- the "Baby Rudin" analysis textbook) like this you're going to be frustrated. This is also the mindset of people who look at drip or color field paintings and think (or worse, say out loud!) that their toddler niece could have done this! Without even trying to see the painting. There's also the narcissistic variation of this: the book apparently says some things that don't agree with your fundamental engineering-ly view of reality therefore what a charlatan. Imagine being a serious Christian who is this intolerant of eg. Buddhist literature. The alternate mindset is that of an open mind willing to engage with the open-ended. It's very well possible that your pragmatic engineer worldviews are naïve to countless aspects you're even unable to think about right now. This doesn't mean you have to trade away your identity as a whatever you think you are to engage with different ideas.