If you are interested in how the magic behind react works and what it takes to build your own basic version of react, be sure to check out Build your own React on pomb.us.
It is a fantastic read. You will learn to build your own react from the ground up. Starting with the createElement and render function and working your way up to function components and even hooks. A fair warning though, you will need a bit of time to go through the whole article. However, as a bonus you will find one of the best ways to present evolving code that I have seen in a long time.
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