Derick Chan Tolchinsky -> Hello, this is me on the internet.
I write, teach, build software, and occasionally translate 2,500-year-old Chinese philosophy into visual essays. This page is an attempt to put all of that in one place.
On Tolchinsky: I married a wonderful human in 2024, and along the way changed my last name from Olson (some of you may know me as Olson-Chan) to Tolchinsky.
Currently
Fiction -> Journey West (opens in a new tab) is a short story about migration, memory, and the long road between two countries. I write most of my fiction and essays over on my writer site, derick-chan.com (opens in a new tab) -> that's the best place to see more.
Poetry -> Lost (opens in a new tab) is a poem written while obsessively reading Paradise Lost in Lower Manhattan.
Software -> I'm building at Kyron Learning (opens in a new tab), working on tools at the intersection of AI and education.
Previously
- Software Engineer at 1stdibs (opens in a new tab) and Remind (opens in a new tab), building consumer and communication products at scale.
- MFA & Instructor in UVA's Creative Writing Program (opens in a new tab), where I taught undergraduate fiction workshops.
- Barista at JBird (opens in a new tab), D Squared (opens in a new tab), and Enna Chocolate (opens in a new tab) -> pulling shots long before I was writing code.
- Meditation Teacher in NYC (opens in a new tab), leading sits and, for a while, running a meditation podcast.
- Resident Yoga Instructor in SF, at Brahmananda Ashram (opens in a new tab) in the Mission.
- Photographer at Penn University Life (opens in a new tab), documenting campus life for the university's flagship publication.
Contact
The best way to reach me is email -> hello@detc.cc