I would recommend the series first — AE assumes familiarity with the recognition primed decision making model (or RPD) which I cover in the series.

If you want to read books to prepare yourself, read:

- Sources of Power by Gary Klein

- Power of Intuition by Gary Klein

Before AE.

And then be prepared to download LOTS of papers to read concurrently while reading the book. AE is not written for the layperson.