Google, Wikipedia, get and study the source to some open source databases, etc. How does one start to learn about anything/everything now that we have Internet

Google, Wikipedia, get and study the source to some open source databases, etc. How does one start to learn about anything/everything now that we have Internet access? Twenty years ago you would go about something like this starting with a library or a university. Now we still have those things plus the WWW. Knock yourself out.