I have an old boss that calls me from time to time. Maybe I'll just call him an old friend at this point. He lives by the philosophy that you put in the work and you debug your thinking by bouncing the context you've built up off of experts. Sometimes he shoots a cool hundred my way thereafter, sometimes he doesn't. Most of the time we're just catching up.
This works for him and tbh it works for me too. I guess my advice is that the important part is not sourcing the expert it's putting in the work to come with enough context to get something out of talking to an expert and to leave them without the feeling like you've wasted their time. Follow people on the socials, read their code, show up at NeurIPS with actual good questions to ask people in person on the hallway track.
Without the _hard work up front to get good questions to ask_ you're in danger of finding a good expert and them deciding you're just another starry eyed kid that doesn't know for just how many years longer you wouldn't even pass the screening call for an interview.
Just my two cents, hope this helps!