I would be interested in a post about the cost (time and attention) of building a knowledge foundation in our era of exacerbated complexity and breadth for the average Joe. I wonder if even under great process (ultra learning, or more evolved quick learning), the learned citizen is but an unreachable lie. 

I should have been more precise, I fancy a knowledge door of entry to understand finance; not a practical door, nor a career door.

Yes, you are right. I was being a bit flexible saying that I agreed. I only partially agree. I may be too conflict averse.

I agree with you.

Somehow, in the end, what matters to me is that in the course of learning:

• [order] notions and their dependencies are introduced in a topological-sorted manner. Be it through multiple small or large texts, or all together in a fat book.
• [redundancy] having to read/skim the same notion the least amount of times.

I've had trouble finding small piecemeal contents that do not require a whole lot of background knowledge to be understood.

Large, comprehensive texts, my thought was, have lower such risks. And I agree that the bigger the piece, the higher the redundancy risk.

Thank you Sir/Madam for your answer.

I mean all of finance. "Introduction to Finance: Markets, Investments, and Financial Management" by Edgar A. Norton and Ronald Melicher mentions and structures the book in three parts: Institutions and markets, investments (trading), and financial management (corporate finance).

I was hoping this would be it, but in 600p, it seems, there is no mention of money issuance, so I dropped it.