Quote from joe on May 13, 2020, 1:56 am

Why Blender? Because it's crazy powerful, versatile and free.
Why not? It's crazy complicated!

But hey, with great power comes great complexity.

The key strokes and key combinations you need to memorize in order to get the job done are daunting but if you keep at it, eventually, one day you realize dad let go of the back of your bike a couple minutes ago and the world is now your oyster.

But seriously - I'm still a noob and youTube is my friend.

Be aware that the following require you to be in edit mode and your mouse pointer to be in the main build/edit window, so not over one of the many menu panels. That out of the way here are some of the blender keystrokes and mouse button combos that changed my life:

Tab - switches between edit and object mode, easy

z - Allows you to select a vertex hidden behind a face.
Seriously, how I lived without knowing about Z and its x-ray powers is a mystery.

p - right up there with Z, in edit mode P allows you to create new objects from your current selection.

CTRL & L, So powerful especially when working with STL files. If you need to grab a discrete part of an stl design or just one part of a joined group of objects, select a vertex of the part desired then press CTRL &  L  and all connected vertexes will also be  selected. If parts of the object you want to grab are still not highlighted select one of those vertexes and press CTRL &  L again. Repeat until all parts of your object are highlighted then press P and create a discrete object.

CTRL & Right mouse button - gives you the amazing power to select vertexes free style with your magic lasso. Combine this with Z and P and you can be truly dangerous.

There are so many, as I remember them I'll add more. but this is a start anyway - Feel free to add your favorite Blender commands - try and keep it simple for us noobs.