[tjr]

Agreed entirely.

Years ago, I volunteered to work on a project for the Free Software Foundation that had been started and stopped more than once, as no-one seemed motivated to actually complete it. I whipped out a very rough demo, and within days I was being mentored and having my work reviewed & critiqued by Richard Stallman.

His interest in me was surely toward getting the work done for the FSF, but what I learned from him has been very useful to me in other projects as well. I doubt I would have been taken seriously if I hadn't actually made a real effort at getting something done that Richard wanted done.

I've also worked with some top jazz musicians, and learned a lot from them, because... I paid them to help me on projects. I didn't go to them asking for advice; I hired them in their professional capacity to help me get something done, and they brought their advice with them. They may be willing to answer random questions from random people as well, but I'm sure I got a whole lot more out of hours in the studio with their undivided attention than I would have by sending an email or trying to talk to them after a concert.