{ "componentChunkName": "component---src-templates-blog-post-tsx", "path": "/blog/2017-01-16-react-native-and-chill-a-tale-of-stupid-made-fast/", "result": {"data":{"blogPost":{"title":"React Native and Chill: A tale of stupid made fast","slug":"/blog/2017-01-16-react-native-and-chill-a-tale-of-stupid-made-fast/","authorNodes":[{"name":"Charles Lowell","slug":"/people/charles-lowell/"}],"markdown":{"html":"

The instant she told me, I knew with the feeling of faith that it was\ntrue. \"Charles,\" she said gravely \"You've got to build something\nstupid, and you've got to do it really soon.\"

\n

Of course! Something stupid. Why didn't I think of that.

\n

It was so obvious why not: I was too busy thinking about\nbiznazz; too busy thinking about sales; too busy thinking\nabout accounting. Too busy thinking about things like office\nfurniture and hiring practices.

\n

These are all things that are well and proper to think about...\nnecessary even. They are the things that every voice I trust in my life\nadmonishes me to concentrate on exclusively, my own loudest among them.

\n

But listen too much to these voices and they'll have you piling the\nwork-cart high with sundry projects and tasks. Now\nyou spend every waking moment watching it teeter back and forth making\nsure it doesn't dump over and lose everything. Where is the\ninspiration in that?

\n

Nope, time to set that cart down and do something stupid.

\n

Luckily, fortune favors the stupid, and if you've set your mind to finding\nsomething idiotic to do, you're bound to succeed (based on the\nabundance of stupid things to do in the universe).

\n

For me it happened the very next day.

\n

A dumb idea

\n

As a statement of fact rather than complaint, the end of\n2016 and the beginning of 2017 has been a preternaturally stressful\ntime. I know that this is what the internet has been droning on about\nlately, but in my case it's really true! I seriously don't remember a\ntime in my life that was any trickier to navigate or that has required\nsuch sustained mental concentration.

\n

Of course I have several coping mechanisms on hand, including Rye\nWhiskey, but one of the simplest and most effective ones that has\ncome to my aid on more occasions that I can count\nis The Chillest Monkey. For me, I need only glance at his picture\nfor a few moments before experiencing a physical sensation of relaxation.

\n

His detached gaze sees through the edifice of anxieties I've built\nand twisted around myself. The low-frequency waves of tranquility\nemanating from his placid countenance dissolve and disippate it like a\ngrease stain before a flow of warm detergent.

\n

I was sharing this personal treasure with my co-workers when Rob\nexclaimed something to the effect of \"We need to put this on the Apple\nTV!\"

\n

\"Yes!\" I thought. \"Yes! we do!\" We should have the power to behold the\nChillest Monkey on an whim! And why stop with the TV? Shouldn't he be\non the Watch and the iPhone as well?

\n

I could almost feel the relief. \"ZOMG!\" I thought, \"My life would be\ndemonstrably better if this were the case.\"

\n

Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid

\n

The timing was fortititous: Apple TV support for React Native had\njust landed on master only a few short weeks ago. Clearly this was\na sign from God that the moment to act was now. And indeed, with\npowerful allies like Robert Deluca, and Amazon Prime Now, how could I\npossibly fail?

\n

So after building react-native from master to get tvOS support, and\nspending an afternoon with Rob hacking to make the chillest monkey layout\nproperly on the Apple TV screen..... and yet a few more hours fiddling\nwith XCode to install onto a physical device that Amazon had delivered\njust minutes before, the mountain was summited. His face expanded in\nanimation to almost six feet across as the app opened up onto the\nprojection screen. The feeling of tranquil gratification was\npalpable.

\n

\"Gif

\n

It's so comforting for me to know now that he's there; to know that\nall I have to do is pick up the Apple TV remote and conjure him with a\ngesture. But what kind of citizen of humanity would I be if I hoarded his\nboundless beneficence to myself?

\n

The Chillest Monkey should be for anyone, and anybody that wants to\ninclude him in their apps and share his bounty with their users should\nbe empowered to do so. That's why I created an extension that\nallows you to do just that: embed this most chill of primates into any\napplication, on any device that React Native supports.

\n

Hard made easy

\n

I glossed over a lot of the yaks that needed to be\nshaved in order to achive the end result (and there were many). I\nlearned about tvOS. I learned a lot about React\nNative and how to package components to share them between applications, but\nlearning was never the point. And it didn't feel anything remotely like\nstudy. If anything, the sensation throughout was one of lightening my load,\neven as I was in the act of lugging a yard full of knowledge onto the ship.

\n

And how about that?!? You trade in your worries and in exchange you\nreceive new insights and skills. Now that seems like a good\ntransaction if I ever heard of one... an arbitrage of the spirit you\nmight say. Now remind me why I don't do this more often?

\n

I don't think I'll need reminding of it in the future though. I also\nhope that whether it's using the Chillest Monkey in your own apps or\nsomething different altogether, you do something silly soon; something\nfor which the payoff is dubious, but the downside doesn't exist.

\n

I did, and it felt stupendous.

\n
\n

I’m Charles Lowell (@cowboyd on twitter), and I build UI for a living at The Frontside. If you enjoyed this, I’d love to hear from you.

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