Twelve years ago next month I was employed as a staff writer on The Australian Financial Review Magazine – back in the days when magazines had staff writers. My brief, hilariously, was to profile the international tastemakers of architecture and industrial design.

This mission-critical role lasted but a few weeks, until the Financial Review’s then-deputy editor James Chessell insisted I do some real work. So I took over the Rear Window column in January 2012.