I think "Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems" is a better starting point for Pearl. Not much easier but more familiar ground if you're coming from today's ML mindset.
As an aside, once while reading through Wasserman's "All of Statistics", he somehow hypnotized me into seeing the title of Ch.16 as "Casual Inference", so anyone who knows me knows that I can't help making a dad-joke about casual inference when the topic comes up.
As an aside, once while reading through Wasserman's "All of Statistics", he somehow hypnotized me into seeing the title of Ch.16 as "Casual Inference", so anyone who knows me knows that I can't help making a dad-joke about casual inference when the topic comes up.