[akkartik]

Depends on how far along the PhD he is.

The social argument was bizarre, I agree. Campuses are great places to meet new people; most of my friends agree that starting work is socially a step down. And they're at least working for large corporations with lots of people in them. Working insane hours at a startup it's unrealistic to expect your social life to be an improvement relative to *anything*.

[whatsreal]

I agree entirely. I am just out of undergrad, and working is a major step down socially. If it weren't for my Customer Service job I would probably interact with no more than 5 people a day (in order: my wife, boss, coworkers, wife.) (Unless you count here and Reddit.) It seems to me that he was just using his girl count as an objective measure of his social life.