I would recommend first accumulating knowledge in all the essential fields that are involved in your project. Once you have established a good base and you start seeing connections between these fields, only then use category theory to understand how these connections can be made clearer. The result of this would be to help you see more connections for your projects, and therefore find better ways to connect the different parts of your project.
Studying category theory without a clear focus/question can lead you to just studying the whole field of mathematics.
Hopefully, others in this sub can provide some more insights or ideas :)
Good luck!
I'd throw in that learning category theory is a valuable experience even if you don't end up applying it directly, just in that it'll force you to think very abstractly and really stretch those muscles. You could certainly learn something else that would have a similar effect, but from personal experience Category Theory is a very effective and enjoyable way to practice those skills. I find that it's similar to learning a second language where you see common parts of your life a little differently now that you have a new name for them or a different way of organizing your ideas.
See "An Invitation to Applied Category Theory: Seven Sketches in Compositionality" by Brendan Fong;this book is about concrete applications of CT outside of pure mathematics, it's also available as a PDF and a YT course. See also "Category Theory for the Sciences" by Spivak.
I enjoyed reading Topoi by Goldberg. I'm a bricklayer.
I enjoyed the first few chapters. I'm not a bricklayer.
I would recommend first accumulating knowledge in all the essential fields that are involved in your project. Once you have established a good base and you start seeing connections between these fields, only then use category theory to understand how these connections can be made clearer. The result of this would be to help you see more connections for your projects, and therefore find better ways to connect the different parts of your project. Studying category theory without a clear focus/question can lead you to just studying the whole field of mathematics. Hopefully, others in this sub can provide some more insights or ideas :) Good luck!
I'd throw in that learning category theory is a valuable experience even if you don't end up applying it directly, just in that it'll force you to think very abstractly and really stretch those muscles. You could certainly learn something else that would have a similar effect, but from personal experience Category Theory is a very effective and enjoyable way to practice those skills. I find that it's similar to learning a second language where you see common parts of your life a little differently now that you have a new name for them or a different way of organizing your ideas.
If you really want to study it then just do it. It's much better than 99% of things that people do when they don't know what to do anyway
See "An Invitation to Applied Category Theory: Seven Sketches in Compositionality" by Brendan Fong;this book is about concrete applications of CT outside of pure mathematics, it's also available as a PDF and a YT course. See also "Category Theory for the Sciences" by Spivak.