I’m Yinson, your barista here at Yinson Cafe.

People usually introduce me as a singer-songwriter, a label that I’ve always found a little limiting. If you ask me what I actually do, I prefer to go beyond such titles and share what I usually spend my time on instead.

𓍼 First of All, I Ponder A Lot

Sometimes overthink, actually. My mind just won’t shut up.

About Life: My Philosophy

This might sound morbid, but I frequently remind myself that an accident could happen at any moment, and I could be gone. Oddly enough, this helps me appreciate the rather ordinary pleasure of having a good day. I value peace of mind and daily contentment more than grand achievements or leaving behind some impressive legacy.

I try to live deliberately and focus on the present and the near future. I could spend years planning a creative project, yet have absolutely no idea where I want to live or what I want to be doing two years from now. I’m perfectly comfortable with that. Having a direction for my projects and having my entire life planned out are two very different things to me.

But weirdly, I also think very far ahead. I open my life planner at least five times a day, constantly evaluating everything from my finances to my learning progress to my hobbies and interests. Since I was 18, I’ve put great effort into preparing myself mentally and financially for an uncertain future, partly driven by an underlying anxiety about the possibility of spending my life struggling to get by.

I believe strongly in the compounding effect, not just financially, but also in the skills I acquire and the work I create. Most of my income streams are designed to be either passive or have relatively low marginal costs, allowing me to keep creating without being tied to every hour of work. It’s not that I don’t want to work. I’d just rather have the freedom to choose what I work on.

I’ve also never wanted a tattoo because I simply cannot think of any symbol or phrase I’m confident I’ll still love when I’m 80.

About Feelings: Sensitive Like Hell

I’ve never really believed in MBTI tests. Yet, I would still take one whenever someone brings it up, almost as a guilty pleasure, just to prove my skepticism right. My results vary each time, which only reinforces my doubt.

Interestingly, there’s one question where my answer has never changed: “Your emotions control you more than you control them.”

I always select “totally agree.”

I like to think I’m a fairly logical person, and in many ways, I am. Give me a financial decision, a complicated travel itinerary or a problem that needs solving, and I’ll happily spend hours weighing every possibility.

But when it comes to feelings? Not quite.

I care deeply. My emotions often take the lead, guiding my thoughts and actions. I overthink almost everything, from the smallest details to the biggest decisions, constantly analyzing and re-analyzing. This means my mind is always busy, replaying conversations and scenarios, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. While this can be overwhelming, it also means I am deeply empathetic and truly invested in the people and things I care about. That’s why I value deeper conversations over shallow ones. It’s a constant balancing act, but it’s an intrinsic part of who I am.

𓍼 I Create A Lot

I Just Want to Make Lots of Stuff

I would say this is probably a byproduct of me pondering a lot and being sensitive.

I’m also often inspired by other people’s work and immediately feel a strong urge to make something myself, usually with a rather strange confidence that I could match their quality.

I write and produce songs under the artist name Yinson Lee, design physical albums and merchandise from scratch, shoot videos while travelling, write essays to express my thoughts and feelings, create websites, and occasionally end up building businesses because one of those projects needs somewhere to live.

I don’t work for others anymore. Freelancing and committing to projects I wasn’t personally invested in used to drain me, so I decided to focus on the things I’m genuinely passionate about.

Over time, I’ve also realised that I don’t particularly enjoy making things that exist entirely on their own. I like it when a line from one song finds its way into another, when a design detail means something beyond looking pretty, or when a website becomes another way of experiencing a piece of work. Sometimes these connections are obvious. Other times, they’re little things that someone might only notice much later. I get an unreasonable amount of pleasure from making all these pieces fit together.

I suppose what I’m really interested in is building worlds. Not necessarily fictional ones, but little worlds where the music, writing, visuals, objects and experiences all seem to belong together. I love planting little details and references that someone might discover on their second, third or tenth encounter with something I’ve made.

I’m probably having more fun with these things than anyone else ever will.

Of course, this also means I tend to get involved in far more things than I probably should. It might sound like I’m having a wonderful time doing all my own stuff, but there’s also a great deal of boring administrative work.

Shooting videos while travelling means spending late nights backing up footage and managing equipment. Making music involves endless file management, coordinating with musicians, planning releases and handling royalties. Running websites means maintaining them, updating content and occasionally spending an absurd amount of time fixing something that looked perfectly fine yesterday.

Even uploading something to social media can involve multiple rounds of checking captions, formats and little details that probably nobody else would notice.

Honestly, I constantly feel like I have too much on my plate.

I Seek Maximization While Managing My Time

This is probably my proudest personal trait, which also happens to be my greatest weakness.

I hate wasting time. I strive to make the most out of everything in my life, whether it’s my schedule, travel plans, spending decisions or the way I work with others.

I tend to plan long trips to make my intercontinental flights feel worth it, sometimes extending them to the point where I start questioning, “Why am I even here?”

I can spend an embarrassing amount of time comparing options just to squeeze a little more value out of a decision. I genuinely enjoy finding a more efficient way of doing something, even when the amount of time I spend figuring it out is probably greater than the time I’ll eventually save.

Yes, I’m aware of the irony.

I’m trying to get better at leaving myself some breathing room. Progress has been rather inconsistent.

I Like to Be Involved in Everything

I’ve always struggled with delegating tasks, especially those involving creative judgment, access to my accounts, or decisions that are difficult to undo.

Trusting other people’s judgment doesn’t come particularly naturally to me. I also tend to get impatient when someone doesn’t understand what I’m trying to achieve, which often leads me to think it would be easier to just do everything myself.

Before trusting an agent, manager or middleman, I usually feel the need to understand the entire process well enough to know exactly what I’m handing over.

For example, in 2023, I spent a great deal of time studying regulations and tax laws before registering my own company in the US as a foreigner. I taught myself video editing and colour grading because I wanted to bring my own imagination to life. I also planned every detail of my travels that year, from New Zealand to Japan to Switzerland and beyond.

I’ve since learnt that doing everything myself isn’t necessarily the same as making everything my own.

Some of the most exciting experiences I’ve had in music have involved collaborating with musicians, arrangers and engineers whose expertise goes far beyond mine. I genuinely enjoy hearing someone bring an idea to life in a way I couldn’t have achieved alone.

What matters to me is that we’re working towards the same vision.

I love being surprised by someone’s brilliant contribution. I just don’t particularly enjoy being surprised by the direction of the whole project.

I’m slowly learning that collaboration doesn’t have to mean giving up creative control. Sometimes it’s precisely what allows an idea to become something much bigger.

Still, I recognise that my need to understand and oversee everything isn’t always healthy or practical.

𓍼 In My Free Time

I Actively Explore Content Rather Than Relying on the Algorithm

I hate it when I catch myself endlessly scrolling through social media, although I can’t entirely avoid it.

To combat this, I have a “Stop Scrolling, Watch This” widget on my phone’s home screen, linking to a curated list of blog posts and videos I’ve bookmarked. The idea is to click on it whenever I catch myself scrolling aimlessly and spend that time on something I actually want to watch or read.

It doesn’t always work, but I like having the option.

I particularly enjoy visiting personal websites with interesting ideas, discovering people who have built their own little corners of the Internet, and watching storytelling channels that genuinely move me.

There’s something I really like about people sharing things simply because they find them interesting, without necessarily worrying about what an algorithm wants them to post.

I suppose that’s partly why this website exists too.

Learning Is My Main Interest

I’m not saying this just to sound impressive. I genuinely enjoy learning new things, often to the point where I’ll spend an entire evening researching something I knew almost nothing about that morning.

Most of the knowledge and skills I use in my daily life are things I’ve taught myself, largely out of curiosity or necessity.

On the creative side, I’ve spent years learning music production, audio recording and mixing, video production, colour grading, jazz piano, guitar and coding.

On the business side, I’ve had to learn how to build and operate a record label, manage music releases, royalties, licensing and taxes, design and sell merchandise, build websites and run online stores.

And then there are my personal interests, which have led me down countless rabbit holes involving finance, investing, credit cards, airline miles, hotel loyalty programmes, foreign languages and independent travel planning.

A lot of these started with a simple question: “How does this work?”

Then I’d find another question, and another, and suddenly I’d be reading about something I hadn’t even known existed a few hours earlier.

Interestingly, I don’t usually include songwriting, singing or writing, especially in Chinese, my native language, when talking about the things I’ve learnt.

I can’t remember a time when I consciously decided to learn them. I’ve been doing them for as long as I can remember, and they’ve always felt natural to me. That certainly doesn’t mean I have nothing left to learn. In fact, they’re probably the things I’m most particular about, and the ones I spend the most time refining.

Much of my deliberate learning began around 2021, and looking back, it’s one of the main reasons I decided not to go to college, despite receiving offers.

I did well in school, but the idea of spending several years following a predetermined syllabus never appealed to me as much as exploring subjects that genuinely interested me. I preferred learning by actually making things, figuring out what I didn’t know, finding resources on the Internet, and then trying again.

Having complete control over my learning also means I can go much deeper into something when it interests me, without having to wait for a class to catch up or move on before I’m ready.

Of course, there are downsides to this approach. It takes discipline, and there’s nobody to tell me when I’ve learnt enough.

But I enjoy the process, and I genuinely like connecting with people who are curious about the same things.

Preferably without group assignments, though. I’ve never been particularly good at those.

I Love Miles and Perks

When it comes to finding good deals, I’m a total freaking nerd.

I love running the numbers and diving into the terms and conditions, whether it’s credit card benefits, airline and hotel loyalty programmes, tourist tax refunds, retailer cashback promotions or some obscure promotion that requires reading three pages of fine print to understand.

I’m particularly obsessed with finding ways to enjoy things that would normally be considered expensive without necessarily paying the obvious price for them.

And no, I don’t mean blindly chasing the cheapest option. I like understanding exactly what I’m getting, what it’s worth, and whether there’s a smarter way to get it.

Airline miles and hotel points are especially fun to me because they combine so many things I enjoy: research, numbers, travel, planning and a little bit of luck.

Most of my travels have been planned around deals I’ve discovered, particularly on premium airlines like Singapore Airlines.

Once, I spontaneously flew from Malaysia to Sydney for just four days to purchase a new camera lens and a guitar.

I’d realised that the savings from promotions, price matching and the tourist tax refund could easily offset the cost of travelling there. On top of that, the trip earned me more airline miles!

I was absolutely delighted.

I realise that flying to another country to save money on shopping sounds slightly ridiculous, but that’s precisely the sort of thing I find exciting.

Trust me, I can never stop talking about miles and perks.

𓍼 Other Less Serious and Slightly Weird Things About Me

I have a complicated relationship with driving.

I hate sitting in traffic and dealing with careless drivers, especially in Malaysia (if you know, you know). It feels like a tremendous waste of time and, occasionally, a genuine risk to my life.

But give me an empty road, beautiful scenery and good weather, and suddenly I love driving. I suppose I don’t actually hate driving. I just hate sharing the road with too many people.

So, if I ever offer to pick you up, you ARE my friend.

I’m terrible with tools and mechanical tasks.

I don’t know much about plumbing or electricity, and I have trouble visualising space and scale.

I’ve never successfully finished assembling IKEA furniture or LEGO sets on my own.

Although I love shooting silky smooth videos with a gimbal, I’ve never really understood how to balance one properly before using it. I just never GET it.

People who can instinctively figure out how mechanical things work, or who have a good sense of three dimensional space, genuinely seem to have a superpower to me.

I admit it, I’m spoiled.

I’ve never properly learnt how to sweep the floor or do my laundry, and I’m deeply grateful for everyone who has taken good care of me.

I know these are things I should probably be better at.

And yes, I really am grateful. Always.

𓍼 And Finally…

No… I don’t brew coffee. Never once.