I chose Nextcloud as my first project because I had an interest in the project for a while. I did an old fashioned install which I later rebuilt with docker. I learned a lot doing it manually twice first. I echo the others. Find a project you like, preferably with its own community so you can ask for help when you inevitably mess something up.

That was fascinating. Thank you for sharing. I’m still early on my self-hosting journey, but a year or two ago I would have understood next to nothing of that. :D