Ask HN: What were your first steps in system architecture/design?

I have only had around 2 YoE as a backend developer, but I already have a deep interest in system design.<p>That said, I have realistic expectations in that becoming a software architect requires field experience with different systems, patterns, making mistakes and learning some lessons the hard way.<p>Nonetheless, I already started learning at least the theoretical foundations thanks to:<p>* Designing Data-Intensive Applications * System Design Primer * Web Scalability for Startup Engineers * System Design Interview by Alex Xu * Quastor subscription * Infoq talks, etc.<p>My interest is only increasing, and I try to participate as much as possible in architecture-related discussions at work with the more experienced developers.<p>Thanks to the learning resources, it&#x27;s no longer a problem to understand the theory, but due to lack of experience, I understandably feel anxious and unconfident thinking about designing something myself.<p>Let me make it clear, I understand that with that little experience under the belt, you can&#x27;t suddenly become a software architect after having read a book.<p>However, some day everyone should start. It would be really cool to find out how currently experienced software architects started their path, designed their first systems, what they would recommend to optimize and fasten the learning process.<p>Thanks!