Tips for general improvement at the beginner/early intermediate level?

If you are willing to put in the work, get and do Yusupov. He covers all areas of the game and it should build a good foundation for you. It is definitely helping me.

That’s one reason why I resign in all my games in a lost position just in case of cheating involved so that way they don’t get the opportunity to mate.

But if I had been blessed with the skill of 2000+ rating I would only play people at that level.

Silman also has a workbook out for Reaccess your chess. If you only want to work on your positional skills that and "Reaccess your Chess" edition 4, or "The Amateur's Mind" might be good.

If you are willing to put in the work, get and do Yusupov. He covers all areas of the game and it should build a good foundation for you. It is definitely helping me.

Silman also has a workbook out for Reaccess your chess. If you only want to work on your positional skills that and "Reaccess your Chess" edition 4, or "The Amateur's Mind" might be good.

      In chess everything has to do with developing skills and especially analytical skill and tactical awareness. If you can't analyse , you can't find the correct candidate moves or even enter a process that will enable you to be at some point ready to find most of the correct candidate moves.Without even the basic tactical awareness you will blunder pieces after piece and you will never be able to play good chess.

     You say:

    "I don't feel I'm at the level to play games and re-analyze them correctly, even, so playing against stronger opponents and losing feels like an exercise in futility."

    Feeling like that is quite understandable. You can be sure  that even world champions were at this level but if you don't find a way to get over it , you can't improve. I will show you how to get over it but it's up to you to do the hard work and it's not going to be easy , nothing is easy in chess.

    First start playing long time control games. You must play at least 60 minutes games with an increment. Daily games are even better.If they are daily games focus in only 4 or less , certainly not more. With every one of your opponent's moves just answer this simple question:

"What my opponent wants to do and do I need to stop it?"

    To answer this question you need to think what's your opponent wnats to do and you need to evaluate  decide if you need to act against it. So you already have a good thinking exercise. Of course you will miss things and you will take wrong decisions. Record your thoughts. If you see nothing then write that in a paper. Seeing nothing is good , doing nothing is bad. You analyse your game after it ends and you try to see what you could do better. post the analysis with your thoughts and see what others have to say.Let's sassume your opponent played 20 moves and you failed to see what he wanted to do in all 20. No problem , don't worry.

 Write ina paper:

"Move 18: I see nothing"

"Move 19:I see nothing"

"Move 20:I see nothing" etc.

Then in analysis you also fail to see what he wants to do. No problem again. Ask from others to explain you. Pick one move only , and understand that.

 A pawn moves and revealed a bishop , the bishop took a piece that you had undefended. Now you learn that when a pawn moves we need to look for pieces that are liberated. Long range bishops that dreate threats via the diagonals. Repeat the move again and again.Be sure that from now on you will always be wary of this innocuous looking but dangerous pawn moves.

      In the next game you will play the unknown moves won't be 20 , they will be 19 or less.Let's assume that next time you miss that a pawn could advance even more and create a fork. Great! Now you learn that apawn move not only reveals some dangerous long range pieces that can kill you , it also creates te threat of an advance.

2 games and you are close to master the pawn. Sounds silly? It's not. It's a simple learning process and it's not always that simple but it has to start that simple. 

     Focus on the most important mistakes. It doesn't matter if you did 50 or 250 mistakes. Choose the most important and fix that.Choose related mistakes. If you missed a knight move in the previous game and you missed another knight move in the next game focus in that mistake.3-4 mistakes with knight moves will make you a knight virtuoso  in no time(no time in this case= 6 months)

      That's all you need to do.Fixing a tiny little thing after every game is enough to make you an expert in no time(no time in this case = 4 years). It's not easy , but it's not impossible either. It needs some effort but it is certainly doable.

     Concentrate during that exercise. Don't do it during cooking and don't talk on your cellphone. You have to decide that one or 2 hours will be chess only , nothing else.

     As always getting started is the difficult part but as people say:

"The journey around the world starts with a small step".

   In your moves focus in playing something that is safe. Concentrate in keeping your pieces ut of danger and punish your opponent's blunders(capture everything that is undefended). This simple and seemingly unimportant exercise will gradually increase your tactical awareness and it will eventually become a skill that you will be able to use without even thinking in no time(no time in this case=2-3 years).

    We have a wonderful community that will help you with the analysis and in determining your mistakes in your thinking process.

   If you are looking for magical solutions or shortcuts ,something that will make you an expert in 6 months, there aren't any. The best I can do for you is play some training games and show you how to get started.   

     The beauty of chess is that it is difficult but it becomes easier once you understand how to use mistakes as lessons. Your mistakes is the best coach you can have. The only thing you need is learn how to use them to effectively determine your deficiencies.

   As for books , Modern Chess Strategy and Zurich 1953 as suggested by Prego are great books but for later. If you decide to study something,  start with  an easy book with annotated games that will help you develop a proper thinking process.

     Chernev's Logical Chess : Move by Move might be the best for this. Focus in what the author says. It's not a perfect book , not even close but it is simple enough to give you some basic concepts(how to develop your pieces , some typical plans ,some basic tactics , etc.) and prepare you for difficult books. Silman's books are aslo good for starting. Also far from perfect but he knows how to explain things in a way that an amateur can understand. They will give you an idea what strategy is(no need to buy them , I can send them to you in pdf). After these books you will be ready for something more advanced and more serious like Modern Chess Strategy. 

    Good luck!

p.s. Message me if you want to play training games.

It is difficult for 90% of the members here to make much progress because they do not know what mistakes they are making over and over again?.

However training games with a player stronger than you would be one way to improve.

Also reading some of the books suggested would be another way to improve.

 Also playing slower time limits [against as strong of players who you could find] would be another way to improve.