I feel like that's very similar to what I said, including the bit about being routine in most other regards.

People who spend a lot of time thinking are prone to having thoughts, and sometimes those thoughts are less common.
The more abstract the topic you're working with, the more accustomed you'll be to hearing things that don't make sense at first.

Might just be me, but in general the more educated people I've met have been more likely to qualify as odd ducks, and the mathy folks tend towards the upper edge.