I am working on something like this myself. I started by reading the Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics, which uses Scheme to teach Hamiltonian and Lagrangian mechanics. And it's much more effective than an ordinary math/physics book. Normal math is a kind of code, except that the VM that executes it is your brain. You (or I, anyway) can only progress if you understand absolutely everything down to the last detail. Programming is much easier. If you don't understand something you can put together a little simulation to poke at the edge cases.

So I finished SICM and I thought, "wouldn't it be cool if I could keep learning physics like this?" And so now I've gotten in touch with some physics postdocs (who are paid shockingly little). I pay them to learn Scheme and encode quantum mechanics, general relativity, statistical mechanics as scheme programs. I work on this about 10 hours a week. In a year or two I'll have knowledge equivalent to an ABD physics grad student, plus information that can take other people from modest beginnings to the same level.

One thing this project has taught me is that students have shockingly little power in their relationships with teachers. I am a major source of income for my postdocs. Some of them may be prioritizing me over some of their other duties. And it really shows. I'm a good self-learner, but there is no substitute for having someone work really hard to anticipate all your questions.

Another thing I've noticed is that everyone (except, increasingly, my postdocs) is a terrible teacher in academia. I have a friend, a fellow grad student, who is scheduled to teach her first lab in her first semester. The lab meets Tuesday. The one-hour credit-only class that will supposedly teach her how to teach meets Wednesday. On day one she'll be going in completely unprepared. And she's not atypical. I suppose that, since students have no power, few people care whether they learn well or just adequately, so people (administrators, professors) prioritize other things. The glaring exception to all this proves the rule. The one person who has done the most to make me successful in graduate school has been my advisor -- and his name will be on every paper I publish. (I like the guy a lot, but self-interest plays a role)