When you guys create a project do you always start from complete scratch or do you use an existing boilerplate from somewhere?

I just copy everything from StackOverflow

For Java, maven archetypes

There is no "one true way" here. I'd reccommend choosing whichever way helps you hit the ground running. There is nothing wrong with copy-pasting boilerplate code, but you should try to understand to a degree what that code is doing, because it may become relevant at a later point.

So, to quote a popular advertising slogan "Just do it".

Really depends. If it is just something I wanna do quick I tend to use a boilerplate. If it is a bigger project that I wanna understand fully and stand behind I tend to start from scratch unless time is a factor or it is something really basic.

Very much depends on what I'm doing.

Scratch if I have time, just to get better at it