what do you wish you could tell your past self who was starting out as a backend developer?

Learn how to read documentation...
It might seem trivial to some people but I've seen pretty experienced (senior dev level) people get stuck on a bug for hours just because they didn't learn to read the docs properly...
I just now realized that it goes for any dev-field but whatever...

"Oi, mate! Go take a shower."

On a more serious note, pretty much what @WoodHika (welcome, BTW). It's okay to use what others have spent time doing. Documentation, if well-made, is an important tool and helps a lot in learning new things.

Buy bitcoins.

@CurseMeSlowly God damn, what I wanted to say.

Buy bitcoin and learn programming stuff not for fucking history lesson

@BambuSource you can end my wish 😄 I only suggested with buying, haven't told him when to sell yet 😛

@-Dex as an extension of that, make sure you're reading the documentation for the version you're actually using.

Spent about a week banging my head on my desk because I didn't do that.

Learn how to configure and debug every single thing you use.

Want to use nginx? Figure out where the logs are and what every line in the .conf means. Keep looking for documentation until you understand everything, don't blindly copy paste.

Want to use MySQL? Figure out how to connect with CLI (not with Phpmyadmin), and every table purpose, including ones that where generated by something. Also learn basic SQL.

Want to use Django? Figure out how you'll get logs, and what every line in the settings.py means.

Those are only a few examples, but basically, own your stack.

You're much better than you think you are, and you certainly aren't useless.

All these people that constantly make you feel inferior / look green and newbish? They can't actually code well. All they really know is their particular framework, and they're helpless without them.

Don't listen when they talk down to you.

Also: Listen to "linkin park -- numb". Move out. Your parents are extremely toxic and are very literally destroying your life. You're far better equipped to handle everything on your own than deal with their help. Don't stay like I did; leave before you kill your emotions just to survive.

@Root, what's up with the last paragraph about parents? Mind telling me why? I might be in a similar situation.

@diavel look through my previous rants.

If that's not enough, I can explain further. Totally don't want to get into it tonight

@Root , ill go through your prev rants.

Move your ass and learn PHP the right way.

AND FINALLY LEARN GIT