When I left Reading, I left all my books and papers behind. I do not have a single academic piece of writing with me. Yesterday evening I wished to go through the shortest academic paper I have ever written, “Ten Principles of Corporate Real Estate Management,” which appeared in Facilities in 1994. It was written in 1992, though. I looked for it on the World Wide Web, and I found it at once, but I could not open it without paying some sort of fee. This morning I wrote to Will Hughes, my former partner at the University of Reading, and asked him to send me a copy. As an academic, he has free access to publications of this sort. Now, why am I interested in this old paper? Chances are that the ten-principles format is becoming ever more attractive to me (“Ten Principles,” February 19, 2003). In terms of writing, I am taking a prophetic stance. And I am adopting the voice of Jesus, Muhammad, Zoroaster…

Addendum I (November 28, 2012)

Will was fast. Given his busy schedule, much faster than I could imagine. I got my shortest paper within hours. And I read it carefully over and over again ever since I got it by electronic mail. In my opinion, it sums up my work in corporate real estate very well. Also, it provides all the pointers for future development. Although every of the ten principles could be expanded forever, the paper contains everything one needs to know about the field that I helped put on the map of academic research so many years ago. The paper also strikes me as a model for passing on the experience in both research and consulting conducted over a couple of decades. What am I to do with the paper, though? I can pass it on to a few people in the field I still happen to know, but I am also thinking about including it into my magnum opus as an example of how to write about any subject of worth. Indeed, the ten-principles format strikes me as the most appropriate for people in the know about anything under the sun. Patanjali across the board, as it were. Or is it sutras for all?

Addendum II (January 17, 2016)

It has taken me quite a while to remember that the first time I used the ten-principles format was in 1976, the very first year of my writing project. There are exactly ten principles in my spoof about a manual for the planner working within the framework of “market socialism,” but the principles apply to any bureaucratic endeavor (“Mala fide,” September 21, 1976). Machiavellian to boot, this piece relies explicitly on the great Renaissance master. Looking back, it is only a pity that ten principles are not mentioned in the title. It was written in bad faith, anyhow. By then, I was deeply disenchanted with Yugoslav self-government, itself a hoax.