{"id":39760,"date":"2026-01-29T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cloudinary.com\/blog\/?p=39760"},"modified":"2026-01-29T14:35:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T22:35:52","slug":"demotivational-posters-tanstack-next-js","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudinary.com\/blog\/demotivational-posters-tanstack-next-js","title":{"rendered":"DRY January: Demotivational Posters With the TANStack or Next.js"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

January can be a time when we make all the resolutions to do and be better in the shiny new year. We resolve to do more… more exercise, a more rigorous diet, even more mindfulness, doggone it! But what if we (and hear me out) instead thought about doing less<\/em>? Less struggling against those 4 p.m. sugar cravings, less fighting against the after-lunch nap, less battling frozen driveways to back the car out so you can make it to pilates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I don’t know if this is creepy or inspiring, but let’s build it anyway.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What if we embraced our inner zen and simply…did our best? After all, isn\u2019t all the productivity that AI is bestowing upon us freeing up our time to do less, rather than more? I\u2019m only half-kidding here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To encourage us to embrace a reductionist mentality, I did a little experiment to see if I could rethink some popular messaging that I\u2019m sure you encountered if you ever worked in an American corporate office in the early 2000s: motivational posters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These little gems were plastered on the walls to exhort us to “Bring Our Best Selves to Work, Achieve More, and Be Bold.” Here\u2019s an example from Successories<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As you can see, they have a particular format of a black background, an inspiring photo, an uplifting word with a lot of kerning, and a blurb at the bottom to drive the message home. A Whole Vibe<\/strong> was created as you walked down a poster-adorned corridor to toss your bag lunch into the office fridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I particularly like this wolf. This is me.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Even back in those days, people made fun of these posters, and I remember being employed in one company packed with sarcastic Eastern Europeans that was instead decorated with demotivational<\/em> posters such as those crafted by the brilliant Despair.inc<\/a>. Here\u2019s a good one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The problem with all of these posters is that, well, you have to buy them, and that\u2019s no fun. So let\u2019s see if we can build something like this ourselves, and actually make it a more surprising experience by connecting two APIs to generate shady messaging like this at random.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Not sure what “this” is, but you got it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Temporarily shelve that resolution against unproductive and negative thinking and let\u2019s see what we can build using:<\/p>\n\n\n\n