Being "a person who studies" is habitually lonely. In general the place to go to find like minds is in something that fits Douglas Adams' "new and exciting and you can probably get a career in it."<p>But it's not a place per-se so much as a series of meetings of the mind. That is, any scene where you are allowed to have a high quality of conversation could potentially apply; whatever art medium or form of technical discussion happens to be hot in your area will be your most likely option, which in a California beach town, could actually mean technical recreations like sailing or surfing have scooped up the interesting folks, because there's a scarcity of opportunity for that in most of the world.<p>The reason why you can't go just anywhere for any topic has a lot to do with bell curves, a little bit to do with forms of gatekeeping and generational knowledge(as topics become fashionable or not, a particular generation who got in at the right moment will end up being the experts), and a great deal to do with path dependencies in the sense of building on what's available.<p>In general, luminaries in many specialized fields of research, where they're known within the practice but a bit removed from public celebrity, are totally available through their email. All you have to do is have the courage to reach out and share something indicative of your passion - a question, a project, a review or comment on something they published. Worst case, they might ignore you or send a generic "thanks, go away" reply. But if you have something good, it can often work out that they see an interesting conversation and will ask for more.