>It’d be pretty cool if we had a real path for later-in-life research time. I think some of these are out there. I've known a few people working in government,

>It’d be pretty cool if we had a real path for later-in-life research time. I think some of these are out there. I've known a few people working in government, academia staff positions, and quasi-government organizations that pursued their PhDs (for free) while working full time. Occasionally, some got some push-back as to why they wouldn't be available to teach, for example, but often their advisors welcomed them because they came with real-world problems they were trying to solve and an organization willing to pay and support them in that effort as part of their "real" job.