React Server Components: The Mental Model That Finally Clicked

React Server Components: The Mental Model That Finally Clicked

I struggled with RSC for months. Then I realized I was thinking about it wrong.

The Wrong Mental Model

I kept thinking: "Server Components are like SSR but different." This led to endless confusion about hydration, client boundaries, and data flow.

The Right Mental Model

Server Components are a new primitive. They're not "SSR components"—they're components that only exist on the server. They never hydrate because they were never meant to run on the client.

The Key Insight

Think of the "use client" directive as drawing a line. Everything above the line stays on the server. Everything below the line gets shipped to the browser.