what happened to all the fun in the world?

Find a tutorial that shows you how to do an amazing effect. Think "I can do that", after all it guides you step by step, how hard can it be? Spend 3 hours trying to get around it, closing up to the end result yet never managing the same outcome. Spend more hours searching for a realistic human iris, cut it, paste it, overlay it, not working. Just doesn't look like it should. Grab the liquify tool and mess around with it. Ah the joyous freedom of expression in a digital age.