A few people have suggested it's what you grow up with. I myself grew up in a family of academics - a philospher and a political scientist. I suppose then you can imagine what dinner conversation looked like. My father was also an Anglican (Episcopal) priest. Expectations placed upon my brother and I were really high. We were expected to know international current events and answer mom's barrage of nightly questions. She was quite the bully and I forever lived in fear of having the wrong answer.