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 
4 comments
hi .. priyanka..
intresting blog..something i’ve never come across..!! the topic intrests me to..!!
well ur above post regarding people’s eating habit is so very tue…if people start eating sensibly no one would be hungry on this planet.!!
Well, Our eating habits mirror our emotions, if one feels depressed one eats junk food, if one feels happy will eat healthy stuff. I don’t see how being rich will affects this, for example poor guys drink Arrack rich guys in sorrow drink whisky. Lead pot story is circumstantial and not does not form a connection between wealth and type of food one eats. Similarily multitasking is not new to humans, if anyone has been on a treking expedition will know the mind has to focus not only where to go but also has to track other things like available food supply, group’s health, weather , look out for wild animals. The human mind is meant to multi-task for survival, it keeps the mind full engaged, however there has to be a single objective for all those tasks, like in this example safely crossing the forest. Multitasking on different tasks for different objectives is bad, but mutlitasking for a single objective is recommended. your thoughts anyone!
Hi Praveen, Yes, I agree with you….having wealth does not necessarily mean that we will indulge
thanks.
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