Ya know, that makes sense and all. But I'd want to be careful about subtly implying that doing nothing but your research and forgoing personal relationships in

Ya know, that makes sense and all. But I'd want to be careful about subtly implying that doing nothing but your research and forgoing personal relationships in favor of work is _better_ than having a life and a little worse thesis. Most of a career in research happens after the PhD anyway, is it possible those "This is my life" people do worse later on, when their potential contributions to fields would be maximizing? Having a life is an okay thing to want, if for no other reason than the people who are really crazy for it and want nothing but math research aren't going to listen to anyone about relationships anyway. If you find yourself seriously considering turning it down a little bit to find other avenues to personal fulfillment then you might not be one of those crazies and i think that's okay, maybe even better