Improve the README before the blog post

README.md

@@ -4,6 +4,30 @@ This project is a [React Native](https://facebook.github.io/react-native/) boile
 
 The boilerplate provides **an architecture optimized for building solid applications** through separation of concerns between the UI and business logic. It is extremely documented so that each piece of code that lands in your application can be understood and used.
 
+## Architecture
+
+The driving goal of the architecture of the boilerplate is separation of concerns. Namely:
+
+- **Presentational components are separated from containers** (aka "screens").
+
+    Presentational components are small components that are concerned with *how things look*. Containers usually define whole application screens and are concerned with *how things work*: they include presentational components and wire everything together.
+
+    If you are interested you can [read more about it here](https://medium.com/@dan_abramov/smart-and-dumb-components-7ca2f9a7c7d0).
+
+- **State is managed using global [Redux](https://redux.js.org/) stores**.
+
+    When applications grow, sharing state and its changes can become very hard. Questions like "How can I access this data?" or "When did this change?" are common, just like passing data around components just to be able to use it in nested components.
+
+    With Redux, state is shared using global *stores*, and changes are predictable: *actions* are applied by *reducers* to the state. While the pattern can be a bit much for small projects, the clear separation of responsibilities and predictability helps with bigger applications.
+
+    If you are interested you can [read more about it here](https://redux.js.org/introduction/motivation).
+
+- **Application side-effects (API calls, etc.) are separated from UI and state manipulation using [Redux Saga](https://redux-saga.js.org/)**.
+
+    Using Redux Saga has two benefits: keeping application side-effects and related business logic out of UI components, as well as executing that logic in an asynchronous way without ending in callback hell.
+
+    Sagas are triggered by Redux actions and can also trigger Redux actions to alter state. By using JavaScript generators (`yield`), sagas are written in a synchronous-like manner while still executing asynchronously.
+
 ## Content
 
 The boilerplate contains:
@@ -18,9 +42,7 @@ The boilerplate contains:
 - [apisauce](https://github.com/infinitered/apisauce) (v0.15) to make [axios](https://github.com/axios/axios) even better
 - [prettier](https://prettier.io/) and [eslint](https://eslint.org/) preconfigured for React Native
 
-## Updates
-
-The boilerplate will follow new React-Native releases as soon as libraries and tools used here are compatible.
+The boilerplate includes an example (displaying the current weather temperature) from UI components to the saga. The example is easy to remove so that it doesn't get in the way.
 
 ## Directory layout
 
@@ -35,6 +57,10 @@ The boilerplate will follow new React-Native releases as soon as libraries and t
 
 For more information on each directory, click the link and read the directory's README.
 
+## Updates
+
+The boilerplate will follow new React-Native releases as soon as libraries and tools used here are compatible.
+
 ## Requirements
 
 Node 8 or greater is required. Development for iOS requires a Mac and Xcode 9 or up, and will target iOS 9 and up.
@@ -81,8 +107,14 @@ This project is released under the [MIT License](LICENSE).
 
 [TheCodingMachine](https://www.thecodingmachine.com/) is a web and mobile agency based in Paris and Lyon, France. We are [constantly looking for new developers and team leaders](https://www.thecodingmachine.com/nous-rejoindre/) and we love [working with freelancers](https://coders.thecodingmachine.com/). You'll find [an overview of all our open source projects on our website](https://thecodingmachine.io/open-source) and on [Github](https://github.com/thecodingmachine).
 
-## See also
+## Alternative boilerplates
+
+We looked into existing boilerplates before starting this project, and while many of them are awesome, we did not find what we were looking for.
+
+The most popular is [mcnamee's Starter Kit](https://github.com/mcnamee/react-native-starter-kit), which is unfortunately [limited by *Expo*](https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started#caveats) and misses Redux Saga.
+
+If we look at the rest (and ignore unmaintained projects), many popular boilerplates are too opinionated: they include 3rd party services or very strong architecture choices that we are not comfortable with. To name a few: [Snowflake](https://github.com/bartonhammond/snowflake) runs with a Hapi Server running on Redhat OpenShift, [Hasura's boilerplate](https://github.com/hasura/react-native-auth-boilerplate) uses Hasura's SaaS for authentication, [Apollo's StarterKit](https://github.com/sysgears/apollo-universal-starter-kit) is targeted at GraphQL using Apollo, the [Meteor Boilerplate](https://github.com/spencercarli/react-native-meteor-boilerplate) targets Meteor…
 
-Here are alternative boilerplates that you may want to check out:
+Finally some did not contain the architecture we are looking for (the separation of concerns with Redux, Sagas, etc.), for example [re-start](https://github.com/react-everywhere/re-start).
 
-- [Ignite boilerplate](https://github.com/infinitered/ignite-ir-boilerplate-andross): this boilerplate is much more opinionated and packed that this one, we wanted something lighter which is why we did no go with it
+One interesting exception is [Ignite IR Boilerplate "Andross"](https://github.com/infinitered/ignite-ir-boilerplate-andross), but after consideration we decided not to use it because of the large amount of unnecessary code/components it provided.