&gt;<i>where do you learn advanced stuff if not in a graduate school?</i><p>From a degree-less &quot;researcher&quot; whose published in neuroimage, i&#x27;d say, wherever you can and as you learn more you get better at knowing where to start when searching&#x2F;who to talk to&#x2F;who to work with.<p>&gt;<i>Academia undoubtedly sucks if one mainly takes money or career prospects into account. </i><p>Or tired of trying to get your lab to work on more on the cutting edge of the technology vs the grant hamster wheel and status games or sucking up to people who clearly don&#x27;t have any understanding of modern technology&#x2F;physics&#x2F;mathematics&#x2F;techniques on a intimate level and squandering resources because they can, and figure you can get what you want done faster with more resources you can more directly allocate.<p>&gt;<i>…learning without the help of a community and a mentor is hard.</i><p>It&#x27;s going to be &quot;hard&quot; no matter what path you take imo, but that what makes the journey of knowledge fun, because of that small chance you might actually figure something out you never knew before is worth ones time?