Generally my advice when people ask me is as follows:

1. In the beginning, going to the gym is the hardest part. Incentive: if you go to the gym consistently for a while you are rewarded with no more post workout muscle soreness, and easy newbie gains.

2. Do compound lifts if you can (squat, bench, deadlift (warning deadlifts are not for everyone, and may not be all that beneficial), pullups/pulldowns.) Add a bit of weight or reps each week. Aim for 3-6 sets. No one will care if you start with an empty bar. If you add reps, if you get up to around 10-12, add weight instead. These number are flexible and there is no right answer.

3. For accessory exercises or things that target single muscles: try a bunch of stuff and try new stuff often. If you don't like it, don't do it. If you like it, work it into your routine. These are generally fun but unnecessary until you hit a plateau/wall in another lift and do some research on what you want to do to get past that plateau/wall.

4. Good form is more important than adding weight. Don't hurt yourself.

5/Bonus. Try watching some cringey YouTube fitness influencers and see if they're doing anything that looks fun and try that.

Also follow the golden rule: clean up and put your damn weights back.

Not OP but I would add - keep some kind of written record of your progress - it can be very motivating to look back and see eg. I went 3 days per week for the last 3 weeks, or 3 months ago I could lift X, now I can lift X+30

I’m pretty sure the deadlift comment would get you into fights in most gyms with power lifters. I’m curious where you have seen that they aren’t beneficial? Everything I’ve read about them puts them firmly into the “best exercises” category.

Not sure exactly what they meant, but I assume most arguments in this vein have something to do with form. A well-executed deadlift is a great exercise, but you have to balance the risk of injury, especially for new lifters without a trainer or coach to help with their form.

Sure. But I wouldn’t put them above squats or bench or overhead presses as far as risk of injury goes. It feels like an arbitrary callout.

The /r/fitness wiki is a surprisingly good resource for beginners: https://thefitness.wiki/

If you have iOS, I highly recommend the Fitbod app. I've tried so many other apps and I just end up doing all this tedious logging that gets frustrating. But Fitbod just outsources all that away to its machine learning backend.

It uses an algorithm to maximize your strength gains and uses the equipment you have at home (or the gym). So even if you only have a few pieces of equipment, it can still create a diverse workout for you.

And it has videos for how to do each exercise, which comes in handy more than you might expect.

I like it because I don't have to keep track of anything, don't have to do any work in terms of number crunching.

It's like having a smart personal coach.

Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe is what you will see recommended the most often

For strength training StrongLifts seems like a good program. It used to be highly recommended on the fitness reddits, but I haven't followed them for a few years. Regardless, I think it's a solid program for starting strength training. I do more of a bodybuilding/bro split, but I've been mixing in a couple of heavy days modeled after the StrongLifts plan. It's certainly simple if nothing else.

https://stronglifts.com/5x5/

Starting Strength, Mark Rippetoe.

Besides the other good suggestions, having a personal trainer demonstrate exercises and work with you to get the proper form is extremely helpful.

I worked out for years learning it myself, even doing a bodybuilding competition. I then had a personal trainer for a few weeks through work and discovered part of my squat form was wrong. It wasn't causing harm but was holding back my gains and did increase my risk of injury.