Learning New Skills Without a Mentor?

Carrie asked how we'd approach learning new skills or levelling existing skills if you don't have a mentor at your workplace. Hiv: I would actually say books is a great thing. A when i learn things on the internet, sometimes they are without basis. And so a book is is somebody's long effort to make something clear in a way you can retain it. If you have a book that has no exercises, you're going to have to come up with some exercises. Because what i've found is that it's very hard for me to learn things with no, not ass i want to say goal, but nowhere to apply it in theer term.