The thing with instructions is always this: The first instant something goes wrong while following them you have to give up if you don't know quite a bit about what you're doing anyway.
I believe I'm not the only one who, when something goes wrong, I become more determined and think "I might learn something here" followed by searching the internet for things related to what went wrong.
This is basically how I learned to program.
Right, but that takes it from "just following instructions" to a thing that requires you to build a mental model of the system you're working with. It also requires you to have confidence that you will find the answer in bounded time.