Because the field is so broad and often highly technical I strongly recommend avoiding getting rabbit-holed. Focus on breath rather than depth. Survey the land

Because the field is so broad and often highly technical I strongly recommend avoiding getting rabbit-holed. Focus on breath rather than depth. Survey the landscape first - get a hand-wavey high level understanding on the two primary schools today: analytic vs continental philosophy. Then study each one’s history and origins. Read this book (also available as YouTube videos I think): https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Book-Ideas-Simply-Explained/dp/1465458557 https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Book-Ideas-Simply-Explaine... This will give you high level introduction of the landscape across the various epochs, the big ideas and their main purveyors. At the end of that you should have a good idea which philosopher/era/ideas interest you most. Only then consider diving deeper. Specifically because you speak of mental models and “developing a personal philosophy” (and because you are on this website I am making some assumptions about your background ans familiarity with computer science/information theory) I also recommend Luciano Floridi. The Logic of Information: A Theory of Philosophy as Conceptual Design https://www.amazon.com/Logic-Information-Theory-Philosophy-Conceptual/dp/0198833636 https://www.amazon.com/Logic-Information-Theory-Philosophy-C...