Marianne Perreault

a human

I am passionate about humanity and all that it entails. I deeply love humans, and I treat all of my very human needs as the leaders of my experience here in this world.

a woman

I recognize the stories, values and perspectives transpiring across societies regarding gender. Being a woman is more than menstruating or bearing children — it comes with a history and a reality, both to be understood and taken into consideration as we move through the world and connect with people.

a political economy student

My deep interest for how society works led me to international political economy as a field of study. Political economy feels to me like the study of the rules of the game: the institutions, incentives, distributions, and power structures that shape what becomes possible in everyday life.

I still hold anthropology, philosophy, systems thinking and sociology very close to my heart as lenses with which to observe the world, but am specializing in politics or economy as a field to work in.

curious

Learning is my passion. Playing with concepts, disagreeing, understanding, not understanding. From music, getting to know someone, the felt human experience of the rain, to feminist economy and anthropology, I love discovering. It’s what life is all about for me.

a writer

I love writing almost as much as I love reading. There’s nothing more satisfying to me than to add to humanity’s perspective through words that touch someone’s heart or life views.

queer

I am pansexual, and I have an affinity for looser concepts around gender, relationships and family than most traditions. This comes out in my history, my experience of relationships, gender roles and society, and my advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights.

international

I was born in Montréal, Canada, with forms of mobility that many people are denied. But I hold no more love for the country I was born in than for every other place on Earth. I identify as a citizen of the world, and that shows up in my work, my philosophy, my family and my travels.

loved

I move through the world from a place of being loved. My family, close friends, and even strangers have repeatedly given me the feeling that I am worthy of care regardless of what I produce, achieve, or become.

That sense of worth is not separate from my work: it is what allows me to meet the world with love in return. It shapes the warmth in my writing, the generosity of my curiosity, and my belief that humans, animals, and societies are easier to understand when we don’t start from judgment.

a systems thinker

Ever since I was young, I’ve always seen links between fields and seemingly unrelated parts of the world. And this is exactly why I need to move through the world as a systems thinker, and never restrict myself to a single field.

an IT consultant

My first career was in IT, and I will always hold a deep fascination for information technology, as I watch it shape our knowledge, our work, our interactions, our personal perspectives. I embrace technology as a powerful force that can amplify how we think into very tangible realities.

vegan

I am not a “perfect” vegan, nor am I asking others to become vegan. But veganism is important to me as an expression of a philosophy in which to move in the world, an expression of a deeper desire I have of building systems for us to live together with the least harm possible.

a futurist

I am deeply in love with the idea of our future. With all its possibilities, it’s always a blank canvas waiting to be painted, and sharing ideas and experiences are the strokes with which we can build something that aligns with who we really want to be.

agnostic

I believe my work, in the way I want to execute with, cannot coexist with certainty. I am therefore striving to be religiously agnostic, but also morally and politically agnostic even though I hold dear my values. I hold deep respect and love for uncertainty, as it keeps me in the right stance for learning and discovering.

a designer

I love to create. I concretely designed user flows and applications in IT, but now I strive to design systems, futures, and epistemic experiences.

an animal

I have a beating heart, warm blood, and I’m deeply intertwined, no matter how abstracted modern life makes it seem, to other forms of life on Earth. I hold that link as sacred and present everyday. This shows up in my work as ecological and interspecies interests.

Projects

Heartfelt words

Year: 2024-2025

Heartfelt Words was a collection of tales accessible through an e-learning platform powered using Shopify.

These tales aimed at teaching adults and teens concepts of psychology and self-development, spanning from communication and self-esteem to cognitive biases or intrinsic motivation.

The project was later shut down after the project's scope exceeded sustainable solo-founder capacity, following an early shift in co-founder availability. The tales have since been published online as a free resource.

heartfeltwords.org/

Projects

Farmvania

Year: 2022-current

Long-running animal, farming, and sanctuary-themed game concept.

It evolved from a farming and trading concept toward a cooperative, ethical, biodiversity-oriented, sanctuary and permaculture game.

It still has a lot of work needed before release and I might decide to simply publish the assets as a public collection instead. It spans more than 300 high-quality digital illustrations by me and a custom-programmed card generator that works from a Directus database to generate printable assets.

Projects

Idea garden

Year: 2026-current

This website is a public collection of hundreds of idea-notes that I encountered, formulated, imagined or interacted with.

They are meant to inspire and elicit curiosity in other intellectuals. They were distilled from my personal notes, artefacts and conversations using AI.

ideagarden.io/

Projects

Sapience

Year: 2025

Sapience was a systems thinking blog meant to expose large concepts with a simplified vocabulary and examples.

The tone is lyrical and the articles are short. The blog has since been retired in favor of the Idea Garden.

withsapience.com/

Projects

AI helpers

Year: 2025-current

My AI helpers are a collection of custom GPTs and prompt systems, including tools to learn new ways of living, challenge assumptions, reduce sycophancy or teach specific mindsets.

I also developed simpler tools to generate uniform brand copy, reduce manual labour in knowledge tasks, build products or prepare market research plans. They span personal and professional realms.

Projects

Social Media Paradox

Year: 2026

Social Media Paradox is a bilingual interactive learning experience about social media, wellbeing, attention, platform incentives, and healthier public choices.

The project maps social media as a system rather than only a personal habit, showing how human needs, creators, platform companies, governments, recommendation algorithms, advertising revenue, engagement goals, wellbeing risks, and regulation interact.

It invites visitors to ask what social media might look like if it were optimized for people's happiness, and to imagine healthier platform design, public policy, community life, and personal choices.

socialmediaparadox.org/

Projects

Language immersion extension

Year: 2026

This is a personal Chrome extension I developed to simulate linguistic immersion in my browser.

It automatically translates a page and keeps the source language as blurred lines which show the source text on hover, allowing for natural exposure even with a very limited vocabulary in the target language.

Paid work

Customer Support Technician - GIRO

Year: 2017-2019

I entered the professional world at 18 through technical support, serving international enterprise software clients in French and English.

Through remote and on-site mandates in Canada and Europe, I learned how technology exists inside real organizations, with real people, constraints, frustrations, and cultures.

I installed and supported enterprise software, travelled to France and Belgium to assist clients, wrote bilingual documentation, and helped train new employees.

Paid work

Technical Analyst - GIRO

Year: 2019-2021

My role evolved into a broader technical and organizational position connecting software, operations, legal requirements, and knowledge management.

I coordinated internal and outsourced teams, developed internal tools, contributed to cloud and GDPR documentation, created testing plans, and built knowledge systems.

Paid work

Analyst Programmer - Gestisoft

Year: 2021-2022

At Gestisoft, I held a hybrid role between technology, operations, and organizational development during a period of growth.

I contributed to strategic planning, coordinated technical priorities, improved internal processes, designed onboarding systems, strengthened knowledge management, and supported client relationships.

Paid work

User Experience Designer - Université du Québec

Year: 2022-2023

As an independent UX design consultant, I contributed to the reconstruction of large and complex legacy enterprise applications.

I designed interfaces and prototypes, conducted user interviews, collaborated with developers and analysts, and advocated for user-centered design practices.

Paid work

Independent Consultant - Marianne Perreault Enr.

Year: 2022-2024

Through my own consulting practice, I worked with technology organizations on user experience, business analysis, operations, and human development.

My mandates included designing internal software, translating human needs into technical requirements, supporting strategic decisions, leading UX research, participating in hiring processes, and providing professional coaching with written recommendations to leadership.

Paid work

Professional Coach - SCAL Informatique

Year: 2022-2024

I accompanied an IT consulting startup's employees through professional growth and self-reflection, bringing together my interests in psychology, communication, and organizational systems.

Paid work

Airbnb Superhost

Year: 2025-current

Through our basement Airbnb suite, I welcome travellers from around the world into my home.

I regularly have fulfilling conversations with strangers from different countries, cultures, and professions.

Experiential learning

Depression and moral reconstruction

From 13 to 18, depression became one of the first deep philosophical experiences of my life.

Animal cruelty, injustice, hunger, and human violence felt morally unbearable to me, and for a long time, I could not understand how to love humanity inside a world capable of so much harm.

That period shook the foundations of my morality for these years and many afterwards. I explored nihilism, psychology, philosophy, and the limits of meaning as survival questions.

Today, I do not feel like depression is a place I can return to in the same way. Not because life became simple, but because I built a worldview strong and flexible enough.

Experiential learning

Caregiving and death of a parent

Being a caregiver for a dying parent at 24 brought me into intimate contact with illness, grief, mortality, and the societal systems surrounding death.

I stopped working and spent a lot of time at the hospital. It was a lesson in capacity, emotional connection, and the way connection changes when nearing death.

I was alone in the room when my parent died. That moment changed my relationship to life, permanence and responsibility.

Afterward, I handled the bureaucracies that follow a death: documents, assets, decisions, logistics, and the material remains of a human life.

Experiential learning

Religious embodiment in an ashram

I grew up secular, so spending time in an ashram became an embodied exploration of religion rather than a return to a tradition I already knew.

I prayed, sang, meditated, practiced yoga, volunteered, walked in silence, and observed how people related to the place, the community, the rituals, and the sacred.

Chanting religious texts with a group showed me how spirituality can move through bodies, voices, rhythm, repetition, and belonging.

It helped me understand in an embodied way why ritual matters.

Experiential learning

Colonialism in Hawai'i

Hawai'i became one of my first direct encounters with colonization as a living system rather than a historical concept.

I read about its history, spent time with native and non-native inhabitants, and tried to understand a society shaped by tourism, military presence, ecological fragility, displacement, and cultural survival.

I spoke extensively with an organic farmer, an ornithologist, and a Hawaiian language teacher.

That trip taught me that a place's touristic branding isn't always showing everything.

Experiential learning

Japan's infrastructure observation

Japan was my first embodied encounter with East Asia.

I watched Tokyo's density, public transit, cleanliness, quietness, and the choreography of everyday life with fascination.

Japan made me feel how deeply infrastructure shapes culture: transportation, cleanliness, space, silence, and density were part of a whole way of organizing collective life.

Experiential learning

Southern Italy and Mediterranean culture

Southern Italy became my first intimate encounter with Mediterranean culture, through travel and a long-term intercultural relationship.

It brought me into contact with different assumptions around family, gender roles, food, beauty, status, the body, sport, competition, and everyday pleasure.

I observed the importance of family as a social structure, the ethics around food and wine, and the tensions between tradition, consumerism, and modernity.

Experiential learning

Belgium and my first business trip abroad

Belgium was my first business trip outside Canada, and it shifted my perspective forever.

I was struck by the overwhelming presence of biking as a means of transporation, different body norms, and the way public life and environment design seemed to value movement differently than back in Canada.

Seeing an artistic advertisement featuring a woman with a naked torso also made me question how much religious heritage continues to shape body taboos, even in secular societies.

Experiential learning

Florida and the American warmth

Florida exposed me to a mix of Latino and English-speaking cultures, but what marked me most was the social warmth I felt from Americans more broadly.

People said hello easily, started conversations casually, and interacted with strangers in a way that felt much more at ease than what I had often experienced in Québec.

Conversations about American politics also helped me remember that political beliefs often carry simple needs inside them: affordability, dignity, safety, recognition, and relief.

Education

International program

Year: 2003-2014

From primary school through my first three years of high school, I was enrolled in a highly competitive international program emphasizing global perspectives, cultural openness, and additional language learning.

Education

High School Diploma and Governor General's Academic Medal

Year: 2016

I completed my high school diploma with the highest academic average in my school, receiving the Governor General's Bronze Medal.

Education

Diploma of Vocational Studies - IT Support

Year: 2013-2016

At 15, I entered an accelerated pathway combining my final two years of high school with a vocational diploma in IT support.

The program introduced me to computer systems, networking, databases, programming, technical troubleshooting, telecommunications, and customer support.

More importantly, it brought me into the professional world at a young age and started a journey through technology, software, consulting, design, and entrepreneurship.

Education

Diploma of Collegial Studies - Business Computing (incomplete)

Year: 2017

I briefly studied Programming at Collège de Rosemont in Montréal before choosing to go work in a company instead.

The experience taught me that I learn best through complexity, real-world problems, autonomy, and rapid application.

Independent studies

Independent technical learning

Year: 2020-2022

Throughout my career, I continuously pursued self-directed learning through LinkedIn Learning, Pluralsight, and freeCodeCamp.

My studies covered software architecture, APIs and web services, object-oriented programming, Python, C#, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, responsive web design, algorithms, data structures, software testing, quality assurance, and modern development practices.

This continuous learning allowed me to move between technical support, programming, analysis, CRM development, and broader technology strategy.

Education

Mon Commerce en Ligne - École des entrepreneurs du Québec

Year: 2024

I completed the Mon Commerce en Ligne (My E-commerce) program, combining personalized coaching with self-paced training on e-commerce strategy, digital tools, marketing, and online business development.

I enrolled in this program with my Heartfelt Words project.

Education

Bachelor of International Political Economy

Year: 2026-current

After nearly a decade working in technology and entrepreneurship, I'm returning to university to study the systems that shape societies.

International Political Economy allows me to bring together long-standing interests in economics, politics, technology, culture, psychology, and systems thinking.

I hope it will allow me to apply my thinking to hard problems with other curious minds and allow me to contribute to the world of academia.

Education

Opinion Writing Course - Columbia+

Year: 2026-current

I am completing an opinion writing course through Columbia+, exploring how to transform complex ideas, personal experiences, and societal observations into clear public writing.

As someone who has always used reading as a way to understand the world, this course helps me develop the craft of turning reflection into pieces that can participate in broader social conversations.

Independent studies

Psychological healing, inner work and personal change

• The Body Keeps the Score - Bessel van der Kolk, MD
• Feeling Good - David D. Burns, MD
• No Bad Parts - Richard C. Schwartz, PhD
• Inner Work - Robert A. Johnson
• The Courage to Be Disliked - Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
• Untangle Your Anxiety - Joshua Fletcher
• The Happiness Advantage - Shawn Achor, MA
• Rejection Proof - Jia Jiang, MBA
• Designing the Mind - Ryan A. Bush
• Mind Your Body - Nicole Sachs, LCSW

Independent studies

Neurodivergence, self-knowledge and accessible living

• The Autistic Guide to Self-Discovery - Sol Smith
• Divergent Mind - Jenara Nerenberg
• Empowered Women with ADHD - Linda Roggli, PCC
• Le Profil Asperger au féminin - Isabelle Hénault, PhD
• Your Rainforest Mind - Paula Prober, MS
• Women and Girls on the Autism Spectrum - Sarah Hendrickx
• How to Keep House While Drowning - KC Davis, LPC
• ADHD Money - Tina Mathams

Independent studies

Embodiment, simplicity and ways of living

• The F*ck It Diet - Caroline Dooner
• The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz, MD
• Good Sugar Bad Sugar - Allen Carr
• How to Eat - Thich Nhat Hanh
• The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan, MA
• The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - Mark Manson

Independent studies

Intimacy, sexuality and attachment

• Bliss Club - Jüne Plã
• The Ethical Slut - Dossie Easton, LMFT and Janet W. Hardy
• The Jealousy Cure - Robert L. Leahy, PhD
• Polysecure - Jessica Fern, MS
• The State of Affairs - Esther Perel, MA, LMFT
• Sex at Dawn - Christopher Ryan, PhD and Cacilda Jethá, MD
• What Is Compersion? - Marie Thouin, PhD

Independent studies

Communication, family and social bonds

• Nonviolent Communication - Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD
• How to Know a Person - David Brooks
• How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
• Read People Like a Book - Patrick King
• The Panic Years - Nell Frizzell
• Raising Children Compassionately - Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD
• All the Rage - Darcy Lockman, PhD

Independent studies

Attention, persuasion and collective sense-making

• The Anxious Generation - Jonathan Haidt, PhD
• Co-Intelligence - Ethan Mollick, PhD
• Hooked - Nir Eyal, MBA
• How to Win the War on Truth - Sam Spitale
• The Storytelling Animal - Jonathan Gottschall, PhD
• All Marketers Are Liars - Seth Godin, MBA

Independent studies

Decolonialism and possible futures

• Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer, PhD
• Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
• Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
• 1984 - George Orwell
• The Fifth Science - exurb1a
• Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers
• A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - Becky Chambers

Independent studies

Business, startups and market creation

• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - Al Ries and Jack Trout
• The Boron Letters - Gary Halbert
• Cashvertising - Drew Eric Whitman
• The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
• The Mom Test - Rob Fitzpatrick
• The Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman
• The Serious Business Owner's Guide to Doubling, Tripling, and Quadrupling Sales - George Mittias
• Zero to One - Peter Thiel, JD

Independent studies

Money, economics and financial agency

• We Should All Be Millionaires - Rachel Rodgers, JD
• How to Lie With Statistics - Darrell Huff, MA
• The Psychology of Money - Morgan Housel
• The Soul of Money - Lynne Twist
• Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt, PhD and Stephen J. Dubner
• The 4-Hour Workweek - Timothy Ferriss

Independent studies

Design, knowledge and intentional systems

• The Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman, PhD
• Building a Second Brain - Tiago Forte
• The Decision Book - Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler
• The Get Things Done Book - Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler
• The 12 Week Year - Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington
• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Marie Kondo
• The Curated Closet - Anuschka Rees

Independent studies

Intellectual community

I regularly entertain intellectual conversations with friends, mentors, and peers across disciplines and countries.

Through high-quality moments with scholars, entrepreneurs, autodidacts and other curious minds, I keep encountering new cultural knowledge, philosophies and domain-specific knowledge that allow me to shape how I see the world.

Independent studies

Art practice

I started drawing in primary school and continued developing my practice into adulthood, gradually integrating acrylic painting, watercolor, digital illustration and pixel art.

I attended watercolor classes with painter Jocelyne Bouchard and continued studying both traditional and digital mediums independently.

My artistic work has included paintings, portraits, character illustrations, environment art, pixel art, game assets and digital illustrations for personal projects, gifts, causes and occasional paid work.

My main digital art tools have included Photoshop, Paint Tool Sai and Aseprite. Through them, I explored character design, perspective, values, color theory, composition, portraiture, environment art and pixel art. I also briefly explored basic 3D modeling through Blender, ZBrush and VR tools.

These skills allowed me to earn a small income online as a teenager, understand the reality of selling creative services early on, and build assets for later personal projects, including game and digital art.

Independent studies

Design foundations

My design foundations grew out of years of visual art practice, then became more intentional as I moved toward UX/UI design and digital product work.

I studied visual principles such as contrast, color theory, composition, information hierarchy, typography, layout and interface design, connecting artistic judgment with practical communication.

My design tools have included Photoshop, Canva, Illustrator, Affinity Vector and UX/UI tools such as Figma or iterative front-end development, depending on the project context.

My artistic background made the transition into UX/UI design more natural: I already understood visual balance, hierarchy, readability, composition and audience perception, and only needed to deepen the more product-specific parts of interface design.

The combination of art and design allowed me to move between expressive visual creation and functional digital design, especially when building websites, interfaces, brand materials, prototypes and game-related assets.

Languages

English

C2 certified in English through the Duolingo English Test, with a score of 160.

I use English comfortably in professional, academic, creative, and intellectual contexts.

Languages

French

French is my native language.

I completed secondary-level French with strong results, including 95% in Secondary V and 92% in Secondary IV.

Languages

Languages I'm exploring

Beyond French and English, I have an ongoing curiosity for languages as doors into different ways of seeing the world.

I have beginner foundations in Italian, shaped by immersion and family proximity; Spanish, first introduced through several years of school; German, through a few months of classes and self-study; and Swedish, through early independent exploration.

I hold these languages less as finished skills and more as living invitations into other ways of thinking.

Assessments

Neuropsychological profile

A neuropsychological assessment revealed a highly heterogeneous cognitive profile, with particular strengths in perceptual reasoning, abstract problem solving, and conceptual thinking.

My strongest abilities lie in identifying patterns and understanding complex systems.

The assessment did not identify a neurodevelopmental disorder, but highlighted a long-standing atypical cognitive profile and a tendency to experience social difference.

Assessments

Psychometric profile

A confidential professional psychometric assessment placed my general cognitive aptitude in the high range of its normative sample (STANINE 8).

It highlighted particular strengths in numerical reasoning, spatial orientation, verbal reasoning, deduction, and analogical reasoning.

Assessments

CliftonStrengths

My top five CliftonStrengths are Empathy, Positivity, Ideation, Developer, and Learner.

They describe the way I most naturally move toward people and ideas: by feeling into human experience, looking for possibility, generating connections, noticing potential, and continuously learning.