看來又是美國梗
TIME應該是美國雜誌吧？
那麼使用一些美國俚語也是有可能
來看看這個http://grammarist.com/words/wonkish-wonky/
Wonkish, wonky
The adjective wonky has two unrelated senses that are both used throughout the English-speaking world. Its older and more commonly used definition is unstable, defective, unreliable, or wobbly. For instance, a bad knee or a table with loose fittings might be called wonky, as might a person who behaves unpredictably. The word’s second sense is studiously concerned with minutiae. It connotes the kind of expertise that only a long-time insider within a given field can have, and it often comes up in
politics, where a wonky person is one who is immersed in the details of policy.
這一段就是一般的解釋：搖搖欲墜、不穩定的etc.
那這一段呢？
Wonky in its second sense comes from the slightly older noun wonk, which emerged in the United States in the late 20th century as slang for a studious person concerned with minutiae.
Wonky的第二種意涵來自一個比較老的名詞wonk，是美國在20世紀末誕生的俚語，指專心在一些瑣事上面的好學者
翻譯成學院派其實才正確吧？