Every week someone asks me some flavour of the same question: "I want to get into backend, what should I learn?" And nine times out of ten, they've already found The Roadmap. They stared at it for ten minutes and quietly concluded that backend development is a thing for other, smarter people.
The honest answer is much shorter than the roadmap makes it look, and it starts with something that isn't even on the roadmap.
Step zero: pick a language and marry it
There's a line usually pinned on Bruce Lee:
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
