Beef up your lockpicking and Hacking to at least 50, which lets you hack "Average" things, which is majority of the game - this includes terminals for disabling turrets
Also for hacking, if you're about to lose, back out and try again, you get 4 tries again
Use the "Here and Now" perk right away when you can
Use the "Well Educated" perk as well, it gives you more points when reading skill books. Learn the names of the skill books too - they're basically anything that isnt "burnt book" or "pre-war book"
also keep a stock of
* Pre-War Books (later in the game, in the national archives)
* Sugar Bombs (for the guy in the tunnels near the Family) - 15 Caps a pop, you can even buy them from peddlers for less and still make profit
* Exploration (for Reilly) - dont explore much, if you do the Reilly's Rangers quest early, you can then start discovering places at your leisure, then stop at Reilly's to get some quick cash
abuse VATS
beef up on small guns, you'll be using mostly shotgun/assault rifle/rifle