On the one hand, having a shared vocabulary and basis for understanding with others is often strictly necessary for fruitful academic debate. On the other hand

On the one hand, having a shared vocabulary and basis for understanding with others is often strictly necessary for fruitful academic debate. On the other hand, just because someone hasn't read the same book doesn't mean they haven't already intuited the same concepts, or that they couldn't have a basis for understanding with you. Maybe I've never read Wittgenstein but I'm intimately familiar with Zen Buddhism, etc. Insular academic fields often feel like they are going out of their way to repel all the potential Ramanujans of the world, and I'm not sure I trust that it's always for the right reasons rather than to fulfill perverse incentives built into the structure of traditional academia.