I feel that. One of my first raspberry pi projects was a magic mirror, it’s basically a pi hooked up to a display and you can program in modules to display custom data, like a weather forecast for your area along with your Google calendar showing the upcoming appointments.
I’d say a raspberry pi 4B with at least 2GB of ram is fine, but upping the ram will let you do more with it.
Docker projects are also fun, like making a pihole.
These projects have lots of documentation and support, so you’re always a Google search away from help.