Things fresh characters can do to get valuable things

[Danno]

Surely a guy playing the game for 10 minutes can just as efficiently produce silkmoth eggs as an established person playing for years?

The main issue here is that silkworms can be really annoying to keep an eye on. You'd have to put the eggs on the table before going to work or school or whatever and then remember to get the hatched worms off the table after or else they'll die. Or if you're gonna be playing for 6-10 hours straight, you'd pretty much have to put them on right when you log on and remember to handle them before you log off. If you put them on at a bad time, you might not be able to care for them by the time they hatch.
If that's not a problem for you, yeah, you can make silk as fast as established people or possibly even faster after you get the ball rolling. Make sure you're full nature if you're doing silk. You'll need a good herablist table and mulberry trees/leaves if you intend to make your silk better than shit quality, though.

[Phizuol]

I would absolutely recommend linen for new players. Hemp is one of the foundations of the game, you'll never go wrong growing it. And while it's growing you can do whatever else you'd like. If you enjoy it and trade regularly you can probably trade up for better seeds, saving yourself months of work, and turn that hemp into even more valuable trades.

[Avu]

Personally I love bricks I can never get enough of those and I'd rather use steel than linen. Dog is weird in his love of linen.

[sabinati]

linen is cheaper, since more people can make it, but the logistics are sometimes a pain

[Phizuol]

Linen also involves LP, which bricks... not so much.

[sabinati]

you get LP for digging the clay