1 Comment | September 28th, 2009 by
Brandon Paton
People spend an exorbitant amount of resources improving ourselves in every way conceivable. But what does this accomplish? Within humankind lurks an unspoken rivalry that motivates us to do exorbitant things. This rivalry has existed since the early ages, and has become increasingly evident as the world becomes exponentially interdependent. This is the Age of Unspoken Rivalry.
We perfect our physical appearance, attend ivy-league universities, and boast our material wealth so that we might gain an edge on our rivals. But who might those rivals be, and what are we rivaling over? Our rivals are everyone around us; they are everyone in the United States. As the global community takes shape, they are everyone in the world. We are rivaling for college admission to increase our education, jobs to maximize our wealth, and spouses so we can reproduce.
Humans have exhibited strong emotional bonds with animals since the beginning of recorded history. The question of animal emotion, then, is whether or not these emotional bonds have ever been mutual. Can animals possibly feel emotions similar to the way humans do? This fundamental question has sparked controversy between scientists, philosophers, and animal lovers for decades. Conclusive scientific research regarding emotions in animals is sparse, largely due to the notion that ascribing human emotions to animals is anthropomorphic. In addition, reliable conclusions regarding emotion are difficult to attain due to the non-linguistic nature of animals. Conversely, many animal lovers are ardent proponents of animal emotion, stemming from extensive personal experiences.
In order to comprehend the theory of animal emotions, our vernacular understanding of emotion must be universalized. Simply hearing the word emotion ignites an unconscious transderivational search by which we assign contextual significance to words. The product of this process is based upon past experiences and feelings that we can relate to. According to Paul Ekman, the six basic emotions humans encounter are anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise. These emotions, as expected, can be fractured into subsets of secondary and tertiary emotions.
GrouperEye has developed a service poised to unsettle the college recruiting industry, and is due to launch later this month. The DC based startup will offer companies an alternative to traditional college recruiting practices, and students a talent-based method of showcasing their abilities to potential employers.
Founder & CEO of GrouperEye, Ted Williams, believes that the current standards in college recruiting are broken, and that GrouperEye is the fix. After talking to Williams on the phone, I am convinced that he and his team have the passion and potential to change the industry.
The problem with traditional college recruitment practices is that an ivy-league degree has become almost a prerequisite for the most desirable jobs. The reasoning behind this is simple. Companies need to recruit talented and productive individuals in order to maximize profits. To find talented and productive candidates, it makes sense to focus recruitment efforts at schools where concentrations of such candidates are particularly high. Their first stop? Ivy-league schools.
