Post some perks you like and regularly take, and/or ones you think aren't worth the bother and I'll tell you my critique of them.

I'll start with a few.

Black Widow/Ladykiller --- Marginally useful. It does get you a few speech successes, but would have been a lot more useful had there been more instances of it showing up in dialogue than there is. If you honestly can't think of anything else you want, then take this one.

Swift Learner --- For me, useless. For one thing I'm never in a hurry to end the EXP collecting phase of the game, the twenty levels of the vanilla game I play go by way too fast as it is, why would I need to make it even more brief? Give this one a pass unless you're in a rush and want to finish the game in time for dinner.

All the 5+5 perks --- Eg. "little leaguer", "gun nut", "theif", "daddy's boy/girl" etc. All very limited, one-time points awards that I wouldn't even class as perks, at least not in the true sense of the word. To me a perk is an ability, something that will continue to benefit you throughout the game. A one-time tiny boost in skill points to two measly skills hardly qualifies as a "perk", to my way of thinking anyway. Avoid these if possible.

Comprehension --- If you're going to take a skill point award as your perk, take this one. At least it has some ongoing long-term benefits for you. There are a lot of skill-boosting books out there in the wastes, and doubling their points worth is, well, worth it, if getting more skill points is what drives your gears. Moderately useful I say!

Educated --- PASS. Sorry, one of the more useless perks going. Assuming you take it at level 4, you're only going to get what, 48 extra skill points over the remaining levels, then that's it? Gone. No further benefits to you whatsoever. What kind of perk is that? It's no perk at all. Better to take the above-mentioned comprehension perk to boost skill points, and choose something more perkier instead of this one.

Bloody Mess --- Waste of a perk. Things are already pretty messy without it; heads coming off, sprays of blood everywhere, limbs getting blown off, gore bags all over with that gross gore bag sound, all of it already in the game. Do I really need to burn a precious perk in hopes of more? (does it really add more?) Unless you can't settle on any other perk and you just want to "see what it does", try this one. Otherwise PASS.

Mysterious Stranger --- Good to try once, but once the novelty wears off it's largely one to avoid in my view. There are better perks out there.

Silent Running --- Arguably one of the more useful perks. Yes it's a points award, but there's also a permanent benefit from it that never goes away for the rest of the game. Even at 100 sneak certain enemies will spot you unless you start moving at a snail's pace, but with this perk you can be in run mode all the time, even in power armor, and your chances of remaining undetected go way up. I like this one. SOMEWHAT USEFUL.

Name some others you like, or some you haven't tried but wonder if they're any good. I haven't had a good discussion about perks in a long time.

Grim Reapers Sprint is probably one of the best because of how broken it is.

The Worst? Puppies...

For Grim Reaper's Sprint I have honestly never taken it, because I never felt the need for it. I kill things just fine without it, and if I'm in an uncommonly large fight with multiple tough enemies I tend to keep a small supply of ultra-jet and med-X on hand, just in case. It's never failed me, thus I've never seen the need to burn my final perk on this one.

I'm sorry, you lost me... puppies? What's that?

I should point out here that I play the original unmodded version of the game, so I am unaware of how dlc's etc might change or add perks. I'll leave those up to you guys to discuss.

It's added by Broken Steel, basically it means Dog meat respawns.

Here's a few more:

Tag! --- PASS! Sorry, by the time level 16 rolls around most of your vital skills should be pretty high up there already. If you've taken the aforementioned comprehension perk you know you'll be getting a lot more SP even after level 20, further bringing more of those skills up to 100 or close to it. So burning a perk for a lousy 15 points is a pure and utter waist. Avoid this one. (unless there's a skill you somehow forgot to develop and are just dying to have it boosted)

Master Trader --- Another one to avoid. By the time this rolls around (lvl 14) you should be having little trouble accruing caps. Sell a couple of repaired-up miniguns, power armors, a batch of sugar bombs, blood packs, pre-war books etc, and you'll have thousands of caps, so many in fact that at some point you won't know what to do with it all. So having a 25% discount at stores gains you what exactly? Unless you're trying to become the richest lone wanderer in history I advise to avoid this one at all costs. Remember; you can't take it with you. ha

Sniper --- In conjunction with Finesse and Better Criticals it's an especially effective perk. Out in the wastes I do so love my long range head shots, and this trio of perks makes those shots very effective and lethal, especially if a sumptuous crit is scored. If you've found and added the Victory Rifle to your inventory then you are literally the baddest thing out there. I say GOOD on this one, again in conjunction with the others mentioned. It's nowhere near as effect just on it's own.

Law Bringer/Contract Killer --- Good for adding a bit more color to your game. But once the novetly wears off (and it will) you will find that you really don't need the extra caps it brings, not to mention the karma (good or bad). I suppose you could take both and then really take control of your karma levels, but other than that I would think most will try them a few times and then move on to other perks. MODERATE.

It's kind of pointless having a discussion like this based on just the vanilla game since most people play with at least Broken Steel. With that add on the levels go up to 30, not 20, so your observations aren't necessarily going to apply.

I add about 4 or 5 perks to my characters right out of the vault. I add all the Gender specific ones simply so I have some more dialog choices in the game. I don't always take those choices, but I like that they were there. They should always be there quite frankly. Another one I add right away is Animal Friend with one rank, I don't want to kill mole rats and similar. I will sometimes add Mysterious Stranger, as he shows up so rarely and I don't use VATS very often.

Other than that, Perks fit the role. Sometimes that means taking useless perks.