Resolving a github repo and a new Create React App

Just ran into this situation, and I'm leaving a note here for my future self. I hope you find it helpful.

I got myself into the chicken-or-the-egg situation that goes like this:

1. Got this idea for a small app
2. Okay, the first thing to do is to make a repo on github, right? I do that, and name the project
3. Hmmm, I want to use Create React App to make most of the pain go away
4. I run npx create-react-app my-apps-name locally but that makes a new directory all unto itself
5. What to do?
6. Oh, yeah, add a new remote git remote add origin https://github.com/user/repo.git
7. git pull origin master .... well, crap. fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories
8. Here is the magic command: git pull origin master --allow-unrelated-histories
9. Resolve merge conflict in the readme, push to the remote
10. fin.