The approach: you pick a standard domain (CRM, task manager) and make it weird. Your CRM becomes a cat fashion store. Your task manager becomes a heist planner. You learn the same enterprise patterns (multi-tenancy, permissions, theming, i18n) but end up with something that's not the 500th identical portfolio project.
The first challenge is free. Curious what HN thinks about this approach to teaching architecture patterns, and whether the "pick your weird domain" angle actually helps with motivation or just adds confusion.