I've used macOS for about 2 years now, and I never found a method to do this that is intuitive. Windows Find has a large directory bar at the top where a user can go to any directory by just typing it.
I've used macOS for about 2 years now, and I never found a method to do this that is intuitive. Windows Find has a large directory bar at the top where a user can go to any directory by just typing it.
Here's a list of other useful shortcuts for Finder and other contexts.
This also works in application file dialogs.
Personally, I've always preferred the Mac OS <= 9 Finder. I don't care for applications that have a web-browser-esque back-arrow to get to some presumed previous context. I'd much rather have multiple windows viewing the same content. (In Xcode, for instance, I loathe the default "one window to rule them all" behavior and I end up using CMD-shift-O and typing there name of the file I want to open - even if it was one that I know is already opened recently. Back arrow takes me to "some content" - but I have to look carefully to know what that content was. But if I'm able to place two windows side by side, I can easily cmd-twiddle between them and know which is which based on its location on my screen.)
All that being said, I do everything from Terminal anyway. (where you can type 'open ~/Documents/' to jump to that location in the Finder.)
Shift-Cmd-A: Applications
Shift-Cmd-H: Home
Shift-Cmd-U: Utilities
Shift-Cmd-C: Computer