Starting out stardew valley. What advice would you give?

Have fun and do whatever you want!
It's a very chill game, but you can make it as stressful as you want by trying to do everything.
There's no time limit, you can play for as many years as you want, so don't stress and try and get everything done as fast as possible (unless that's fun for you).
- How does the friendship mechanic work? Does it need specific times? Just talking isn't doing anything.
  But yea, been focusing on farming mostly.
  
  Talking gives a very small friendship bonus, almost non noticable, but it does a tiny bit. The key is giving gifts. You can talk to anyone while holding anything, and you will give them the thing you're holding as a gift. Each person likes different things, and will respond if they like it or not. You can track who likes what by clicking on their profile in the social tab ( ❤️ icon). It'll track what items you gave them and what their feelings on it were.
  Also there are items you can discover, and also conversations with others that will clue you in to what some people like.
  
  Talking is slow, but absolutely will have an effect over time.

The community centre can be a really interesting place.
Going to the mines can also be quite rewarding.

Don’t plant seeds that take longer to grow than the amount of days left in a season, they will be lost.
Fishing is a relatively good way to make money early game.
You sometimes see little worms on the ground, you can hoe that tile to get an item
The official wiki is a great source for information

Save two of everything.
If you get any kind of egg, save it until you can hatch it in an incubator.
You can move the right joystick to access corners, decorate your house, and hover over your energy bar to check the exact amount you have left.
- Ah fuck, got a thunder egg and donated it
  
  It's okay, that one's just a rock.
- This, you will need them for gifts and quests and the money you don't make by selling it will be earned doubly by having one ready to go when it's called upon.
  Chests are cheap, get a system. I use veggies, fruit, flowers, forage, seeds, tools, metals, gems as probably my first set as I get going.
  Money is not the problem in this game, time is what gets you.

If you're having fun, you're doing what you should be. If you're getting bored, however, and you're past Spring 5, there's a couple of things you might have missed:
You should have a quest or two in your log to give you a goal or two. Not sure what the button to open the quest log is on switch, but there should be one.
Some days, the Help Wanted board outside Pierre's will have a villager request you can do. You won't be able to do all the requests at this point, and they do have a 2 day time limit, but the money and friendship are nice early on.
Have you been checking your mail? You should have gotten a letter asking you to come by a place.

Also in the mail: you should have gotten a notice that a new area has opened up.

Enter town from the bus stop between 8am and 1pm on a non-rainy day for an important cutscene. If you've already seen it, but don't know how to progress, make sure to look around inside, especially at shiny things.
- Got the rod BTW, did first wizard meetup too. Worried about time because the major says that if anyone else goes to joja the community place gets sold,
  Thx for the tips, will play more tomorro
  
  Don't worry, time doesn't affect the Joja/community center thing. You're good to do it at your own pace.
  Glad to help! Hope you enjoy it.

You can put chests on the first level of the mines and keep stuff there to help you empty your bags or if you need food and such.
You can actually put furniture in a lot of places but if you accidentally put something in the middle of a NPC's path that will be removed (I think in the case of the chest the items inside are lost forever).
Some crops sometimes can grow to be very big if they are planted in 4x4.
Watch the TV every morning. It can help you adapt what you might do that day depending on your luck and weather. You can also get recipes.
- Don't have the mine yet

Always check to see if you can donate something to the museum/community center before tossing it, dig up the little wiggly worms that appear in the dirt, collect as much stuff as possible for crafting, picking up seasonal fruit is easy money and a great way to explore, you'll find secret notes and instructions that can be accessed in your menu that give directions to find special items and cutscenes so keep an eye out for those, parts of the map will only unlock after certain events are done, the fishing rod can be cast at an angle if you toggle the joycon while casting... but most importantly have fun! It's a pretty dense game with lots of love put into it.

Keep track of who likes what
- The game tracks it for you now.

I have 800 hours in the game, played through many times with perfection.
Save at least 2 of everything. Save 5 of gold star veggies and fruits along with some unstarred.
Make field snacks and pop them like Skittles. Plan your day a bit, time is ticking.
Fishing skill first IMO, blast that as much as you can and sell as much as you can.
There is so much to do, as you find things and progress there will be more and more things.
Buy strawberries in year 1 at the egg festival. As many as you can. Year two, plant them as beginning of spring. Profit.
Also have fun, don't let the days or time stress you out.
- Uhh, I fucked up, got the strawberries but planted them the night after the festival :neocat_shocked:
  
  Ha! That works, you just don't get as much money from them because it's late In the season.
  I love playing stardew.

the game doesn't really have a time limit or lose condition, so you can't really go wrong.
but if you want a fast start:
Save a bit of everything, grow a couple of every crop at first. make sure to check you have enough time left in the season when you plant (28 day long seasons).
prioritize the community center, it gives a lot of perks and makes sure you engage with all the mechanics. aa a first timer you can get it by summer year 2 or so if you focus, year 1 if you are lucky/hardcore about it
when fishing you can make the bobber move left or right as you cast it, which can get you hard to reach fishing spots\
Upgrade your watering can first, ideally near the end of a season when you don't have crops that need watering.
hoe mysterious ground spots
if you befriend people they will give you stuff, usually stuff they like that you can use to make them like you even more. completing the daily quests makes them like you more and is usually more profitable than selling whatever they ask for. the prize ticket you get later on for those quests are very good.
Pay attention to luck on the TV, it makes a big difference for mining and fishing, it doesn't effect farming item qualities or the contents of geodes though.
- Nice
  I'm doing center, have 2 things done so far
  But why upgrade can? My axe and pick are both steel.
  Also, what swords are good?
  I currently have the obsidian edge
  
  Upgrading the can lets you charge up and water more spots at once (same for the hoe, but thats less important), makes a huge difference to both the energy cost and the time needed to water crops.
  You can save your first prismatic shard and have a walk around the desert, it should give you the best sword you can access until late game. The sword you have now is probably good enough until then, but if you like mining and have a lot of cash get the lava katana from the monster hunter club.