Console #125 -- Interview with Gao of Logto - an open source user identity solution
Featuring ToolJet, pdfgrep, and Reactive Resume
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🏗️ Projects
Browse through open source projects on OpenSourceHub.io, add your project to get more exposure and connect with other maintainers and contributors!
⚒️ ToolJet
ToolJet is an open-source low-code framework to build and deploy internal tools quickly without much effort from the engineering teams. It can help connect to databases, cloud storages, etc and build apps using drag and drop application builder.
language: JS, stars: 13442, issues: 188, last commit: Oct 02. 2022
repo: github.com/ToolJet/ToolJet
site: tooljet.com
📄 pdfgrep
pdfgrep is a command line tool to search text in PDF files. It supports regular expressions, compatible with GNU grep, and can search multiple files at a time.
language: C++, stars: 205, issues: 26, last commit: 2 years ago
repo: gitlab.com/pdfgrep/pdfgrep
site: pdfgrep.org
💼 Reactive Resume
Reactive Resume is a free and open source resume builder that’s built to make the mundane tasks of creating, updating and sharing your resume as easy as 1, 2, 3. With this app, you can create multiple resumes and share them with recruiters through a unique link.
language: TypeScript, stars: 7673, issues: 74, last commit: Sept 15, 2022
repo: github.com/AmruthPillai/Reactive-Resume
site: rxresu.me
🔐 Logto
Logto is a frontend-to-backend open-source user identity solution. Logto helps you build the sign-in experience and user identity within minutes. It's secure, elegant, flexible, efficient, and comes with a delighted sign-in journey.
language: TypeScript, stars: 4395, issues: 38, last commit: Oct 01, 2022
repo: github.com/logto-io/logto
site: logto.io
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🎤 Interview with Gao of Logto
Hey Gao! Thanks for joining us! Let us start with your background. Where are you from, where have you worked in the past, how did you learn to program, and what languages or frameworks do you like?
Hi folks! I’m Gao from China. Before founding Silverhand, I worked for Sequoia and Airbnb. I believe practice is the best way to learn to program, so keeping coding is the key. I like TypeScript, Swift, and React.
What did you work on when you were at Sequoia and Airbnb?
Sequoia: Digitalization platform.
Airbnb: China host storefront.
Who or what are your biggest influences as a developer?
Steve Jobs. His experience taught me to develop software in a product-building mindset instead of merely delivering a “tech project”.
What's an opinion you have that most people don't agree with?
Provide the best work environment you can afford for your team. It will greatly affect team productivity.
What is your favorite software tool?
Figma. It’s super intuitive even for a programmer.
What is your favorite book and why?
“The Art of War”. It reshaped my mindset of how to build a strong team and be a great leader.
Have you ever experienced burnout? How did you deal with it?
I’m experiencing micro-burnouts almost every single day, since I’d like to push myself to the edge.
Mentally, it is all about the deep love for my work, so it will naturally recharge me; physically, I’ll just rest, do trivial random things (e.g., laundry, cleanliness), and think nothing.
If you could teach every 12 year old in the world one thing, what would it be and why?
Self-awareness. Since love will be the ultimate power for great work and persistence, all you need to do is to find what you love. The process will be much easier if you know and accept your strengths and weaknesses, and you’ll have a strong feeling when you meet what you love.
If I gave you $10 million to invest in one thing right now, where would you put it?
My company. :-)
How is Silverhand currently funded?
We are funded by Sequoia Capital China, ZhenFund, and Eminence Ventures.
What are you currently learning?
Being a good company guy.
What have you been listening to lately?
Music from the Weeknd.
How do you separate good project ideas from bad ones?
Useful, reasonable, and unique.
Useful means when the project launches, it can help people.
Reasonable means it doesn’t have technical blockers that no one can resolve, and won’t take too long to launch the first version.
Unique means the idea has something special. No need to be special in every perspective, but at least it’ll attract a specific bunch of people.
Why was Logto started?
I was investigating technical issues when integrating Okta while in Sequoia. Out of curiosity, the research on identity products started. Then I found that identity is not as boring as it sounds and still has space for a new product.
My developer friends were excited about my idea after we talked. So we started as a part-time project, but soon we found it’s way more complex and interesting than we thought.
What did you find out?
It involves many areas: open identity standards (OAuth/OpenID Connect), tech architecture, connectors, product design, user experience, developer experience, etc.
So we need to think about the whole picture and provide a scalable frontend-to-backend open-source solution. It is pretty challenging but interesting.
Where did the name for Logto come from?
The simplification of “Log in to”. Fun fact: we decided to use “sign in” instead of “log in” before we launched the first public version.
Who, or what was the biggest inspiration for Logto?
Auth0.
Are there any overarching goals of Logto that drive design or implementation? If so, what trade-offs have been made in Logto as a consequence of these goals?
Build thoughtful products. We don’t build features when they cannot bear tough challenges. So users may think some features are “missing”, while the actual situation could be we didn’t figure out the best practice yet.
What is the most challenging problem that’s been solved in Logto, so far (code links encouraged)?
Combining good dev experience, end-user experience, and engineering quality in one product.
Are there any competitors or projects similar to Logto? If so, what were they lacking that made you consider building something new?
Auth0, Keycloak, Supertokens, Ory, Clerk, etc.
They are all good projects, but we’d like to build something out-of-box for both developers and leaders, with a solid and scalable product and engineering design.
What was the most surprising thing you learned while working on Logto?
We received much feedback and contribution from the community, which accelerated and drove us to the next level.
What is your typical approach to debugging issues filed in the Logto repo?
Focus on the issues that have full context
Categorize and prioritize issues
Bonus: Make a minimum repo for reproducing
Optional: Have a live chat with the user on Discord
Then the issue will be straightforward, and our team doesn't need to spend much time on debugging.
Is Logto intended to eventually be monetized ?
Yes, mainly it’ll be a classic SaaS revenue model.
How do you balance your work on open-source with your day job and other responsibilities?
Unfortunately, I cannot. As a founder, I need to take care of everything. :-)
What is the best way for a new developer to contribute to Logto?
Start with our one-star bounty issues, they are pretty friendly to new contributors.
If you plan to continue developing Logto, where do you see the project heading next?
Build more features for startups and enterprises, and make Logto production ready.
What motivates you to continue contributing to Logto?
Fulfillment of helping people.
Are there any other projects besides Logto that you’re working on?
No for now. But I’d like to mention my last project eul, which let me feel the unique charm of open-source.
eul looks cool! Are you still working on it?
No, I'm too busy to maintain it.
Do you have any other project ideas that you haven’t started?
Online IDE
A backend framework
Where do you see open-source heading next?
A more collaborative, self-managed, and efficient community.
Do you have any suggestions for someone trying to make their first contribution to an open-source project?
Read guidelines before reading code; read code before asking questions; ask questions before submitting the work.
Want to join the conversation about one of the projects featured this week? Drop a comment, or see what others are saying!
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