I can't understand how anyone would decide to lose their social life for anything. But then, perhaps I am simply not the right person to become a scholar. Sure, I can put an hour or two a day of personal time keeping up to date, but I wouldn't see myself going "alright, let's waste an entire year of personal time for non paid formations" ... If I really have to do some learning, I'm going to try to do it through projects which I am paid to do.