Why is there no walk through on how to build reputation?

I understand why there is a large step to entry - but it should be possible to contribute almost immediately because, well that's why I came here in the first place. Is there a walk-through our best practice for building reputation in a legit way?

It's making it hard to adopt and find use if I'm blocked every time I intend on doing something useful. The ends don't justify the means for me.