IMO a better approach would be to read Designing Data Intensive Applications (mentioned a million times on HN) which is more like a high-level map of the field.

IMO a better approach would be to read Designing Data Intensive Applications (mentioned a million times on HN) which is more like a high-level map of the field. The references in DDIA are also a goldmine of information. You don't have to read DDIA front to back. Just picking a topic (for instance "Distributed Transactions") is enough to get you started building an intuition about these issues.