I know one good reference.

https://www.deeplearningbook.org/

Also there are various courses and lectures but that needs time and effort. There is no short cuts like the book posted by OP.

I believe "shortcut books" like the one posted by OP appeal to some of us because it's a succinct source of, basically... lookup queries. That is, when we run across a question we can't answer, we'd prefer to Google that topic on our own and learn in our own nonlinear style. Don't give me a pile of textbooks corresponding to 6-10 semesters of classes, give me a single book like this and let me research by myself everything it refers to.

Yeah. You just have to build models, experiment, intentionally make bad decisions, and get a feel for how things work. There's no clear shortcut.

But, this is also what you will practically be doing.

I make a point of never doing "projects" during a recruitment process. The fact is that there are too many good opportunities out there that will not require me two spend a full day or even several days in a week to complete a job application, without compensation. Whenever I hear that there is a "project" to complete, I just tell them that I already have tons of projects to work on and pass the "opportunity".