SHAUN
BRAZZONI
Intro
I am
A Full Stack Developer
An Ethical-Hacking Hobbyist
A Sole Proprietor
Projects
"Be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play."
- Alan Watts
Experience
"It's better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way."
- Alan Watts
Sep 2019 to April 2021
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT)
Software Development Diploma
I am learning how to build websites, applications and databases. We collaborate with our peers, and apply our skills to tackle realistic-problems. So far, our tech stack has been Java, SQL Plus, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, AdobeXd & Linux/Windows.
Jun 2017 to Sep 2017
Statcom Ltd.
Junior Seismic Programmer
Statcom gave me the chance to apply my programming knowledge in the real-world. Using the Qt Creator, I built a rudimentary version of a desktop application. The application read data from a seismic trace, converted IBM Single Precision Floating Point data to a C++ data type, and plotted the data on a GUI.
Sep 2015 to April 2018
The University of British Columbia (UBC)
Engineering/General Studies
I will be forever grateful for the experiences I had at UBC; UBC introduced me to coding, psychology and philosophy. It was also home to many friendly, creative and passionate individuals. At UBC, I discovered what it was like to learn out of interest, not out of necessity.
Books
"That which gives us the power to work magic sets the limit of that power. A mage can control only what... he can name exactly and wholly."
- Ursula K. Le Guin in A Wizard of EarthSea
Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
This books, the sequel to "Sapiens", is like my road map to the future. Harari summarizes his view of how the world currently operates; our communities are held together by fictional constructs. Then, on the topic of AI, he discusses the ostensible differences between consciousness and intelligence.
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Feeling hungry after looking at the cover of this book? The red and yellow colors are used ubiquitously by fast food corporations. These colors act as cues, and they are the first step in a habit loop. The colors are just one example, and they are just one idea that Duhigg discusses in this book. I've used concepts from this book to reinforce workout routines and develop interfaces that retain customers.
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin is a great writer, and she crafts wonderful metaphors. My favourite metaphor in this book is naming. A wizards ability to speak the name of something, exactly and wholly, gives him control over that thing. This truth is parallel to our ability to understand something in the real world. Naming is our understanding; if we can understand everything there is to know about something, we can manipulate it to our will. This idea inspires the polymath in me.
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
This is a contentious novel. It has some ideas that can be reworked into modern philosophies; however, there are some that are best left in the 1930s. Ideas like function before form can still be valuable to environmentalists, frugalists, and web developers. In a consumerist society, I think it is important for us to value function over superficiality.
Psychology by Lilienfeld et al.
The 3rd Canadian Edition was the textbook for my first psychology class. This was one of the few textbooks that I did not resell, for it is still valuable to me. The concepts in this textbook help me understand the reasoning behind UX principles. The book has research-backed theories that I apply when developing websites.