The article highlights themes and paradoxes foundin the issue’s articles about everyday academic“savoir-faire”. One paradox concerns the oxymoroniccharacter of the topic: is academic savoirfaireto be seen as hands-on theory or as theoreticalsleights of hand? The second paradox depictsacademic life and routines as intensely individual,even narcissistic, and social and altruistic. A thirdparadox concerns the high prevalence – and evennecessity – of emotions in what are supposed to berational academic practices and environments.These paradoxes can be seen as containing an implicitmoral diagnosis of the current state of affairswithin Swedish academia.