Digging your own grave - Ancient Romans and the lead pot
Yesterday I went for a guest lecture and I decided to stay after the lecture to participate in the class discussion since it was on my favorite topic of mobile phone usage among youth in different countries. Needless to say I learnt about some very interesting stuff.
But during the discussion, I heard this story about "Ancient Romans and the lead pot" in the context of multitasking.
The story is that in ancient Rome, Romans who could own a lead pot were considered of a higher status, but what they didn't know was that the lead was poisonous so when they ate food cooked in the lead pot, they died because of poisoning.
The story brings to mind so many examples from our modern day life.
Multitasking - Since we have so many technologies available we multitask. While working we keep checking our emails or we keep messaging. Does it really make us efficient?
Food - related diseases - You can call it diseases of affluence or whatever, but the sad truth is just because it is available and we can afford it we eat whatever we like and however much we want. We do not focus on the fact that we need to eat healthy and in limited quantities.
I have seen many people eating, just for the sake of eating.
Let's not dig our own graves, as the Ancient Romans did :)
