[jltsiren]

Each field has its own culture and its own way of thinking. People are often socialized to a particular culture in the university or even earlier, and it sticks. You can learn other fields on your own, but it's hard to adopt the culture without socialization.

I did theoretical computer science in the university, leaning towards more applied stuff by the end of my PhD. I'm still a computer scientist at heart. I can follow some topics in research mathematics, but I don't think like a mathematician and I'm not interested in the same things. I work in bioinformatics these days, but I often zone out when people start talking about the stuff that goes in the results section of a paper. I'm not a bioinformatician, and I'm not interested in the same things. I've seen a similar culture gap between bioinformatics and "proper" biology, but I don't have first-hand experience with that.