About
Hi, I'm Yi Hui (Yihui) ✨
I'm a product person (PM) in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company by profession. In my previous “life”, I worked in digital marketing where I later realised I wanted to be more involved in product-building instead. I also like exploring other areas in community building, healing, internet culture, and visual arts whenever I can.
I write and reflect on my experiences on my blog and my other newsletter about lessons learned from anime and films. I also build (no code) projects, like Notion templates and a platform to discover and support local artists.
Also I’m Notion certified! That means I get to show off my Notion Essentials badge (and help you with Notion stuff, of course).
Let’s work together if we vibe:
Yihui's user manual (working style)Note: Writing isn't my strongest point but I want to get better at it. I’m more than happy to receive feedback, so message me on Twitter with any feedback at all.
On introspection and being online
Subconsciously I’ve always been tired of the default narrative that most people choose to take, while I dream of alternatives. However, I’d been living my many years in slow burn, going from one thing to another — I suppose it’s “easier” that way instead of taking the risk to explore the unknown. It’s not necessarily bad, but my heart wasn’t fully in the work I’d been doing. Maybe that was why I struggled to articulate my thoughts into the right words, because the work didn’t matter. Self-help books help to a certain extent, but they didn’t feel complete.
It’s mostly because of the pandemic that I made me take introspection more seriously. I do this by journaling daily, as well as reviewing my weeks, months, and year. I also completed a 50-hour yin yoga training to help integrate my current writing and introspection methods with yin. Making introspection my habit does help me to write to learn and think better, ultimately to seek and live my “authentic” self whatever that may be.
(However, I may also be slowly adopting the belief that life doesn’t always need to be purposeful. If you’re having fun surrounded by people you love, isn’t that already enough?)
I lead with curiosity to explore and try different things with zero judgement, so I can get to know myself better (know what I want and don’t want) and be more in tune with my mind and body. And I think I’m very slowly starting to see where I want to put my focus on.
I understand that growing, nourishing, and (un)learning to be and live a better (more authentic) version of myself is a long process, but I’m learning to accept it’s okay to not have all the answers now. And I try to be excited for what’s yet to come. This quote is the main driver of what I’m learning to accept:
(I wrote a blog post about this too — being okay with being boring)
I’m also online a lot.
I’ve been an internet native since I was 12 with a place(s) to host my stuff online. My early internet rabbit holes were FanFiction (writing), DeviantArt (drawing), Blogger/LiveJournal/Xanga/Tumblr (blogging), and even built my own ATLA (Avatar: The Last Airbender) fan site (building websites). I miss the era of having fun “surfing the internet” when we weren’t so absorbed with analytics, algorithms, “content”, and the “influencers” blarghs. One day I hope to help build the internet that I want to see more of.
It’s why I have my own personal space (blog, personal website, internet home etc) to document and share my learnings and experiences. It’s ever growing, even this About page too! I’m growing my library of almost anything I can think of, like an ongoing list of articles that helped me see things differently, so that it may grow into a warm and comfy home of my reflections, interests, and more that I can come back to. And hopefully that may inspire you to make your own too.
Other interests
I love films, anime/manga, art, photography, and NADDPOD. If money was no object, I would probably dedicate my time to filmmaking. I still take photos and make videos, especially from my travels, in case I make this filmmaking thing take off in future. I haven’t figured out why my interests interest me, but perhaps it’s ultimately the different forms of storytelling that I wish to explore. Why storytelling? Maybe a blog post is a better way to express my interest.
For inspiration and references, I really enjoy curating artsy boards on art direction and taste, music playlists for different moods, and everything else on are.na.
I care about causes in climate change, intersectional feminism, gender equality, mental health, and sustainability. In the past, I volunteered my time and skills at a local climate youth group as well as a women empowerment group.
