Contact:

Email and Windows Live Messenger (MSN) listed on my website: xona.com/matthewdoucette


Personal:

I wish to surround myself with positive, open-minded, productive, and inspirational people. That's all!

Negativity, drama, and worrying are all a waste of your mental resources. There are better things to do! I have collected many quotes (inspirational, action, etc.) over the years. They were individually "hand picked", not just copied blindly from other source. I love them. They make you think and broaden your mind. This is the closest we can get to the insides of some of the greatest minds ever. Maybe browsing through them will help clarify and enact an important decision in your life. Who knows?


Background:

I have an extreme passion for technology, especially video games. I respect them as a player and as a programmer and designer. I have aspirations to develop my own video games from scratch and have had such aspirations since early elementary school.

So far, life, school, flawed expectations, society, a general lack of respect for technology, and other meaningless things have got in the way. However, I respect that everyone's current situation is of their own doing. I believe you should not blame anyone for your life but yourself. So, I have made efforts to correct all the mistakes and remove all the barriers that have prevented me from doing what I love to do, which is computer programming (mostly 3D graphics and game programming).

It's amazing what can be accomplished though sacrifices. I believe success is almost entirely dependant on how much you are willing to sacrifice. All the major failures I have met in my life are unwilling to make the simplest of sacrifices. As you grow and gain a better understanding of what is truly important, sacrificing becomes easy, as it is easy to give up those things that do not matter.

Anyway, now when something makes it hard for me to do what I love, a red flag goes up. Now I try to remove everything in my way. I am not looking for help, just freedom of choice. In this regard, I have been changing my life around for the better over the past 3 or 4 years.

I am now working on a very unique software project, which I must call "Project X" until we decide to release more details, with my brother Jason Doucette. We have been at it indirectly since March 12th, 2002! It is not a video game, but it is the next best thing. In a lot of ways, Project X is much better than any video game project, and is much better than any opportunity I could have hoped for. I feel fortunate and hope to make the best of it. I will release more details on Project X when it is released! It will be exciting to finally release a professional software product to the market.


"Be Yourself" Explained:

("Be Yourself" is my MySpace tagline.) "Being yourself" is a very simple idea, but something I find nearly impossible to achieve due to the expectations of others. It is my ultimate goal, to truly be myself.

"Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly." - St. Francis De Sales

I try my best to not let society guide me. When I was a child, I did not care what anyone thought. I did things that were unpopular at the time. I programmed computers, designed video games, learned new math, designed characters, etc. (Math is just a tool to be used to accomplish a goal. Math to a video game programmer is like shoes to a basketball player. Once you understand the point, once you remove the ignorance, learning math actually seems cool.) Anyway, somehow it got engraved into me that the ignorant opinions of others mattered. As I grew older, I knew enough to hide my work from others to avoid "breaking social codes" and becoming a target.

In elementary school, playing video games was cool, but designing a computer program was not. It is a matter of perspective. Another example, in "my world", my work and my designs were important. However, in the "real world", homework and test marks were deemed important. The older I grew, the more ridiculous the rules and restrictions of society became.

Once I hit junior high, I had to dress a certain way, act a certain way, and do certain things. I was never successful at conforming to society. Now, looking back, I realize there was little substance in the opinions of others. In retrospect, my peers were mostly clueless and lost themselves in relation to their dreams. I am now glad I did not "sell out" and conform. (I cannot take credit for my actions, as I wanted to conform on some level, but I fortunately lacked the skills to do so.)

School was nothing more than a huge, meaningless, judgmental barrier. Judgments can be devastating. A person cannot do what they believe they cannot do. If you destroy a person's belief in themselves, you destroy the person. This is what school does. I still have the occasional dream where I never studied for an exam I am about to write. Anything else that would cause me to have dreams years after the fact would be viewed as a traumatic experience.

School is about control and obligations, nothing more. You gain nothing by controlling someone other than destroying their freedom and diminishing their potential. I think putting such a big emphasis on school is a flawed idea. (I realize that this view does not fit everyone and every trade.) The reality is that failing an exam is not a big deal. I wish I failed more often, and spent that (wasted) energy towards my own projects.

I wish I could go back to the way I was before my mind was distorted, at such a young age, via the intellectual torture of regulated education. It now seems foolish that I worried more about school marks than my own (true) education and passions, the very thing "schooling" is supposed to develop in me. Have not all parents, teachers, and school adminstrators completely missed the point? Now, I try to "be myself" and do the things that are meaningful to me. I greatly admire those who are who they are, and do what they love.


Website:

xona.com/matthewdoucette


My Social Networking Sites:

Facebook, Hi5, MySpace, Digg, YouTube


My Projects:

1) Project X (2002-present) - Coming soon (no site yet)...
2) Domain Hacks (2004) - domain hack search utility
3) Xona.com" (2004-present) - free non-profit technology site
4) To Be Continued... (1999) - real-time 3D graphics demo
5) Quotes (1999-present) - quote collection
6) WipeOut (1998) - Reversi/Othello AI (try to beat it)
7) Music (1995-2002) - music compositi
8) 3D Graphics (pre-1999) - DOS-based real-time 3D graphics


Favorite Quotation:

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out where the strong man stumbled, or where a doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, and who comes up short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause. The man who at best knows the triumph of high achievement and who at worst, if he fails, fails while daring greatly, so that his place will never be with those cold timid souls who never knew victory or defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt

As previously mentioned, I have collected many inspirational quotes over the years. Again, they were "hand picked", not just blindly copied off another quote website. On some level, I relate (or wish to relate) to all of them. Check them out.

Technology,
Video games,
Game programming,
Game design,
3D graphics programming (1, 2),
Software development,
Design & Usability,
Artificial Intelligence,
Game theory,
Science,
Basketball,
Chess,
Theoretical physics,
Music Composition,
Philosophy,
Video game music,
Transformers,
Inspirational Quotes,
Lamborghinis,
Business,
Entrepreneurship,
Independance,
Financial Independance,
Learning,
Growing,
Isaac (my son).

Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill):
- The most amazing (personal development) book I've ever read. It explains similarities in the mindsets of some of the most (financially) successful people in the world. Then, it helps you to achieve the same mindset. It teaches you how to be successful, not just financially successful. An alternate, more appropriate, title would be, "Think and Accomplish Anything". The book has little to do with money. I bought this book for a friend who was trying to get fit, and I wish he actually read and followed its advice and direction.

Rich Dad Poor Dad (Robert T. Kiyosaki):
- It's about a child who has two dads, who both have different outlooks on money, careers, and success. Very interesting. I love the contrast. It's up to you to decide which is best.

People incorrectly sense greed in a person who chooses to expand their financial intelligence. Let me explain: Increasing your financial intelligence increases the efficiency of your money and the efficiency of your efforts to make money. It doesn't mean you are trying to make money at all costs. You can still do what you love and be financially intelligent. Increasing your financial intelligence is not wanting something for nothing; it is not greed. Furthermore, being financially ignorant does not coincide with selflessness. In fact, it is the opposite. People who are bad with money are usually the most greedy, because they do not understand what money is and how money works. (Money is an inexact medium of exchange.) Striving for efficiency is not wanting something for nothing. People enjoy justifying their own mediocrity by believing success in anything (especially wealth) can only be obtained through greed and luck.

If you choose to expand your financial intelligence, the best advice I can give (besides reading this book) is to only take financial advice from those who have achieved (and those who are putting great effort into achieving) substantial wealth on their own. And do not sacrafice your passions in efforts to "get rich". You will never become financially successful via a trade you do not love.

Although I am far from my goal of financial independence, I have noticed a striking change in my outlook on material things as my financial intelligence has grown. Most notably, I am more appreciative of why things cost as much as they cost. Instead of falling into some sort of financial depression that the majority of people who cannot control their money seem to have, I respect the cost of creation. I respect the efforts required to make products. I also understand that buying cheap is wasting more money in the long run. It has taken some time, and I still have a long way to go, but I have shed a lot of my "poor mentality", for the better. This has affected my life by allowing me to easier purchase things that matter (for me it's things like computers, software, my office, etc.) which increases my productivity in my efforts to acheive my goals. Now, If I need something, I respect that it is worth what it costs. If I really need it, it's worth more than it costs

(Keep in mind that, at the time of this writing, I not only have a negative net worth but have had a negative net worth for over ten years. So I am not ignorant towards the average person's financial problems due any type of "wealth"; It is quite the opposite. I relate to money problems more than most who know me would assume.)

This is how I see it: The rich man wants it, obtains education to get it, then puts forth intelligent effort and achieves it. The poor man wants it, chooses to remain uneducated, puts forth unintelligent effort (or no effort at all) and does not achieve it. They both believe they deserve it. So, who is greedier? It reminds me of, and perhaps is a derivative of, this amazing quote:

"The great difference between those who succeed and those who fail does not consist in the amount of work done by each but in the amount of intelligent work." - Og Mandino

Insult to Intelligence (Frank Smith):
- It explains how the education system ignores the natural method in which children learn. School teaches children that learning is difficult and boring, when learning is actually our brain's primary function. Also, I love that it gives credit to the children for the learning they accomplish, not to egotistic parents, teachers, and institutions. (Parents, teachers, and schools should only take credit in that they have provided the environment in which allows the child to learn on his/her own. The only job of a parent is to provide your children with the best environment possible. It is not about teaching, it is about allowing learning to take place.) Children are so highly underrated. If you are a parent, you owe it to your children to read this book. If you are a teacher, you should want to learn how children learn, or do us all a favor and quit your job, please. Also, if you are simply interested in the way humans learn, you will want to read this book. I cannot say enough. This book is amazing.

Developing Talent in Young People (Benjamin Bloom):
- Another great book for parents, teachers, and students.