Ep. 3. Learning from Old Sayings

As you already know from the previous episodes, over the past years I have been collecting, writing, rewriting and drafting texts to complete a book dedicated to the fruit and vegetable sector. A book that is both a text about the fresh produce business and a strange kind of autobiography of my endeavours in the industry.

This is because much of the content is the fruit of conversations and personal experiences with colleagues, clients, and bosses throughout my almost 30 years of professional practice. And the rest of my learnings stem from the wounds of the battle in this crazy world and from feeling lost in this business for years.

One of the ideas of the book is that there is a common heritage in the sector. That there is a shared culture that is often conveyed in the form of aphorisms, stock phrases, jokes, or even stories. And that these phrases contain deep truths about how the fruit and vegetable industry works and how decisions are made.

So, I tried to compile all those “truisms”… all those sayings (and even the stories surrounding them) that professionals share among themselves. And I tried to put them into context. You can find them all in a chapter in the book called Freshpedia.

The purpose has been to extract from them the truth they convey and give them the status of what is called “heuristics”. Understanding heuristics as: “a simple rule that serves for decision-making and explains how people solve problems in a practical way”.

Welcome to a new episode of Freshconomics Podcast!