A comment in Michael Pettis blog

I have been reading economics posts with a very partial understanding for the last few years. Once in a while some posts like this seem to make sense. Then I found that I did not understand much of his recent post  "If we don't understand both sides of China's balance sheet, we understand neither". Responding to the frustrations of another commenter, one Deek writes
"I think there are a number of readers/lurkers in your boat (that is, not having a finance/econ background). I count myself in this group. I started reading this site in 2013/2014 – the first thing that I found helpful was reading through the year or two of essays that preceded the first one I read. I’ve read every post since then and the professor’s books in reverse order (finishing Volatility Machine now). The material above seems to dovetail more closely with the Volatility Machine, as compared to the other books. I find it more challenging as well. In any event, if you are really interested in all of this, it would probably do you well to read the Volatility Machine."
I seem to be in a similar situation; still a few more years to go.