>forced me to learn stuff like: how to manage a monad transformer stack, how to make http requests, how to parse and serialize json, how to write to a database, etc..

I am currently just before this stage. I can use Haskell for stuff like projecteuler.net problems but I haven't written a single useful, real-world program without copy-pasting some code.

I tried doing something with http requests to an API for stock trading but I failed to understand how to make a request. There are a few packages but they all have their flaws (e.g. no https) and aren't really developed that much.

My question is: did you write all these things with mostly only the Prelude of Haskell or did you use packages for all those things you listed (http requests, json data, databases etc.)?

I'd love some pointers in the right direction for http requests as well as maybe ideas for initial real-world project ideas that are exciting (I don't care for the standard ones you find online).