Having someone to talk to on a regular basis is kind of the idea behind teaching assistants, at least for many types of work. There is definitely room to innov

Having someone to talk to on a regular basis is kind of the idea behind teaching assistants, at least for many types of work. There is definitely room to innovate between paying the cost of a full blown degree and 100% self study. Effective or not, I think dev bootcamps became popular for this reason. I attended Tealeaf Academy, now LaunchSchool, to kick-start my own self learning, and I thought it was an excellent investment. Their model is (or at least was) to provide a structured program, with email & chat support, and a few hours per week of live interaction. I also liked how they framed learning as the entry point to a path which required a lot of learning, and not a "be an employed developer in 90 days." It worked well for me.