I think there's a lot to learn from starting from scratch, and it's something I hope to do too.

Gladly! I'll keep the list to what I've studied so far. Here goes:
- If you ever want to explore, say, Doom (Spacemacs is likely too bloated for someone who gravitates to a vanilla config), chemacs[1] is a nifty, simple profile switcher
- I think there's a lot of value in studying what they've done with their mnemonic keybinding systems (I love being able to narrow to an org-mode subtree and widen again with =, n= and =, N=, respectively, as but one of many examples)
- Sasha Chua is a good source, as she's very knowledgeable and put out a drawn 1-pager[2] on starting Emacs - it's geared towards standard Emacs keybindings
- Personally, I'm a huge fan of Evil-mode for Vim keybindings, as they're powerful and portable and I had basic familiarity with Vim before picking up Emacs
- I haven't found a rough edge in Evil-mode yet - it seems very refined
- Dired is worth getting a handle on early since any improvement in how you can navigate Emacs translates
- Magit is pure magic, and I now have my full ~/org under version control with what feels like near-0 overhead
- Seorenn makes mostly Spacemacs videos[3] and Zaiste Programming makes Doom videos[4], but I find them useful regardless of my config - you may just want to skip to the videos on packages that interest you
- If you haven't yet, choosing either Helm or Ivy is huge
- Personally, I'm happy with helm in Spacemacs and I was happy with ivy when I used Doom - heck, even my friend is happy with Ido
- It's fun to explore more efficient ways of jumping around - the Avy package is very popular for this (check out `avy-goto-char-timer` in particular)
- Also, I'll note that I've been able to find a clean 1- or 2-pager reference card for every major package I've searched for

But, truly, the jackpot for me has been org-mode. At first, I used it as just another knowledge repo, like a more efficient (yet local and text-centric) version of Evernote. But, now, I'm working through the book _Getting Things Done_ and believe that there is no better tool on the planet than Emacs and org-mode for implementing the core and majority of that system. Regardless, having a specific implementation goal has aided my learning dramatically.

Specific to org-mode:
- I started with the Org-mode Compact Guide[5], which I'd study and practice during 20-30 minute sessions every other day or so - it moves fast and I was happy with my org-mode skill after only having worked through Chapter 2
- However, perhaps the best way to start learning org-mode is Worg[6]
- Occasionally, I've found that the Compact Guide lacks an important command for my own workflow, so I'll usually go to the Org-mode Manual[7] itself
- When learning to configure Refiling, though, I found this[8] to be the best resource
- Finally, I'm a big fan of "org indent mode" - it keeps Git diffs clean when changing indentation yet displays my contents appropriately indented

This is a lot, and I'm sure your path will be different than mine, but I hope you find some nuggets in there. Best of luck!

[1] https://github.com/plexus/chemacs
[2] https://sachachua.com/blog/2013/05/how-to-learn-emacs-a-hand...
[3] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPNohcoOBa5GGreLyc3nn...
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCMh7srOqvw&list=PLhXZp00uXB...
[5] https://orgmode.org/guide/
[6] https://orgmode.org/worg/
[7] https://orgmode.org/org.html
[8] https://blog.aaronbieber.com/2017/03/19/organizing-notes-wit...