Welcome to Meet a Descoper! This interview series spotlights app builders—whether they are Descope employees, community members, or users of our service. In these chats, Descopers chronicle their daily work, highlight things they are proud of, and share advice for developers wishing to pursue similar careers.
Today, we're buzzing with excitement to share our conversation with front-end dynamo Tomer Lichtash, who brings a uniquely poetic perspective to web development. When he's not crafting elegant web components, you might find him strumming a guitar or penning verses that bridge the worlds of technology and literature.
How I got here
Q. To start off, can you tell us something about yourself?
Like many developers, I own a couple of guitars—well, three, if I include my acoustic. When asked what I'm playing these days, I'd echo John Lennon's classic line: "Just playing around." I'm also a published poet with two books under my belt.
Q. Why did you decide to become a developer?
My journey started with a Commodore 64 in childhood. Even though it was primarily my gaming machine at first, there was something magical about the way you could write commands and make things happen. That spark of creation through code stayed with me through my early experiments with BASIC and Pascal.
Being a developer is something I’ve always wanted to do, but that didn’t prevent me from combining it with other pursuits. I’ve actually spent many years deep in the humanities. I studied literature and philosophy, and for decades, I've been active in the Israeli literary scene. My first book, published in 2007, is called "Lorem Ipsum"—and no, it's not just placeholder text! (Tomer laughs) It's a poetic interpretation of Lorem Ipsum through Hebrew poetry, where you'll find verses about both love and Firefox. I find dovetailing these two worlds to be a truly inspiring creative exercise.
Q. Why did you join Descope?
After spending over a decade at Wix, where I was one of the first employees working on their HTML editor during the transition from Flash, I was hunting for a new dragon to chase. I wasn't just looking to replicate past experiences, though. I wanted something that would challenge me in new ways while letting me build something unprecedented.
When I saw what Descope was doing with authentication and had my first conversation about their approach, I immediately recognized that spark of innovation. The chance to work on browser technologies in a completely different domain was exactly the kind of challenge I was after.
Day in the life
Q. What’s your favorite part of your day-to-day work in the dev team?
There's something truly magical about working with web components and the vanilla framework of the browser. While we support all frameworks and provide various SDK options, at our core we're building something incredibly robust that needs to work seamlessly everywhere.
Q. What’s one piece of work you are most proud of?
The V2 component project stands out as a major milestone. What started as a seemingly simple challenge evolved into an exciting six-month journey of complete refactoring. Working closely with Nir Gur Arie, who architected our front-end from day one, we built an entirely new component system that became our standard.
It's funny looking back—this project started with a straightforward requirement but grew into something much bigger. It was my first major project at Descope, diving deep into web components and vanilla JavaScript to create something both optimal and robust. The best part was seeing other developers actually use and appreciate what we built.
Q. We’ve heard you’re a collector of “hacker folklore.” What is that exactly, and how did you get into it?
My interest in the poetic side of technology extends to preserving its history too. I maintain a website called Mel's Loop, where I chronicle early developer tales and hacker stories. I'm particularly fascinated by the story of Mel, a programmer from the 1950s whose code was so clever and elegant it inspired folklore-like stories.
There's this beautiful excerpt from a piece posted to Usenet by Ed Nather on May 21, 1983:
I have often felt that programming is an art form, whose real value can only be appreciated by another versed in the same arcane art; there are lovely gems and brilliant coups hidden from human view and admiration, sometimes forever, by the very nature of the process.
This intersection of code and poetry isn't just artistic navel-gazing. It speaks to how programming, at its core, is about human communication through a technical medium. Just as poetry can hide profound meaning in seemingly simple verses, elegant code can conceal brilliant solutions in deceptively mundane structures.
Looking back
Q: What makes your approach to development unique?
To me, writing code is both a technical and creative process. At work, I put on my "serious hat" and focus on delivering robust solutions. But I've always seen a hidden poetic side to code and automated systems. It's an art form that not many people fully appreciate.
Q. What advice do you have for developers who are just starting their journey?
First, when you’re thinking about a career in development, you had better love it. It’s a true iceberg, and one that can both captivate and consume your professional life. Second, a good mentor is precious to have, but never wait for one. Delve, learn, and meddle as much as you can, all the time. The best developers I know combine technical excellence with creative thinking. Don't be afraid to bring your unique perspective to the code you write.
Q. How do you like to unwind from work?
Music is a comfort to me. I'm a huge Beatles fan—George Harrison is my favorite for his intuitive, spiritual approach to music. Recently, I've been drawing inspiration from artists like Johnny Greenwood and bands like Radiohead. I believe in playing whatever feels right, regardless of the instrument or genre—much like how I approach coding!
We hope you enjoyed getting to know Tomer a little better. For more DevRel chats, authentication concept overviews, and developer tutorials, you can subscribe to our blog or follow us on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
