I have a PhD in physics and left academia 25 years ago.
I would divide the learning of physics in four categories:
- the initial discovery part where you read about something for the first time (nutation, baryons, ...). It is best to have a shallow but interesting approach then, with some (or lots of) liberty on the precision.
- the "things are related" part which was extraordinary in my case. It is the part (about 2 or 3 years into the physics curriculum) where you discover that some things are closely related and you can reuse bits and pieces of what you knew from the previous part to see the "big picture". That part is the most fruitful because you can have your own internal discussions about physics and they are not difficult to confirm or not.
- the "let's dive into the details". That one is tough, very tough. You have a lot of details where you can miss what you are actually learning. There is a lot of math involved, up to voodoo math such as renormalisation. This is for the ones who want to make physics the main topic of their life (= academia).
- the "realization" part when you make peace with a lot of things you learned, where you trust math to drive some parts of physics, where you finally understand that there are some things that you will not understand (or that are not understandable with the current knowledge). This is a phase you get to sometimes after not having done physics for some time.
I would warm recommend to spend some time on part one with some "general public" books to get a hint of what is awaiting you. Then to go to step two with a introductory/mid-level book for students of physics, in the "introduction to physics" part. And then look further to selected areas if you want.
I would divide the learning of physics in four categories:
- the initial discovery part where you read about something for the first time (nutation, baryons, ...). It is best to have a shallow but interesting approach then, with some (or lots of) liberty on the precision.
- the "things are related" part which was extraordinary in my case. It is the part (about 2 or 3 years into the physics curriculum) where you discover that some things are closely related and you can reuse bits and pieces of what you knew from the previous part to see the "big picture". That part is the most fruitful because you can have your own internal discussions about physics and they are not difficult to confirm or not.
- the "let's dive into the details". That one is tough, very tough. You have a lot of details where you can miss what you are actually learning. There is a lot of math involved, up to voodoo math such as renormalisation. This is for the ones who want to make physics the main topic of their life (= academia).
- the "realization" part when you make peace with a lot of things you learned, where you trust math to drive some parts of physics, where you finally understand that there are some things that you will not understand (or that are not understandable with the current knowledge). This is a phase you get to sometimes after not having done physics for some time.
I would warm recommend to spend some time on part one with some "general public" books to get a hint of what is awaiting you. Then to go to step two with a introductory/mid-level book for students of physics, in the "introduction to physics" part. And then look further to selected areas if you want.
Physics is marvelous.