Why learn how to script?

It is well-known that Roblox offers a neat scripting API that lets users program in the Lua scripting language. But why should you learn it? What purpose does it serve you to learn it? Let me contrast some statements some users have given me.

"You're already really good at scripting. I will never be that good, so I should never learn"

Wrong, very wrong. When I started scripting, users like xLEGOx (now Stravant), Anaminus, and Stickmasterluke were (and still are) fantastic scripters. I looked at them and thought, "I will never be that good. Never." Thankfully I didn't stop there though. Not that I ever became better, but I never let the thought of others being better than me stop me. I used it has positive motivation. Something to strive for.

I came from not knowing anything about computers to knowing quite a lot about them and programming. I am no genius either. I am a B-average student and don't care too much about math or science. However, I still learned how to script and love doing it.

"The wiki doesn't help"

I learned from the wiki. It helps a ton! The main issue you have here is that you aren't willing to read through full articles and then constantly practice what the articles teach you. If you want to learn something that a wiki article teaches you, then you MUST practice it a lot until you get a true understanding of how it all works.

"Scripting has no future value for me"

If I never got into scripting, I would still be chasing a false dream of becoming a fighter pilot, which will never happen due to my poor eyesight. Scripting opened up the doors of computers to me, which has opened up a whole new field of profession that I want to go into. Lua scripting has also introduced me to larger languages, such as C++ and Java, which are languages used in the professional fields today. Scripting may or may not have future value for you, but if it does, why risk passing up the opportunity of learning it?

"Scripting is too hard"

This may be an age issue. I was 13 when I started scripting, and it was pretty difficult at first. If you are younger than 13, I still encourage you to strive to learn, but it WILL be difficult, but challenges are what programmers live for. The goal is to never stop trying. Always push forward in your learning.

"Scripting is useless"

You might as well say computers are useless then. In fact, you might as well throw your computer out a window. But instead, I encourage you to change your mindset and give it a try.

"How do I learn?"

There are a lot of great resources online. Honestly, googling questions is a great way to find help. Sites like Stackoverflow have tons of archived forum posts that I have learned tons from. The ROBLOX Wiki is a great place to learn how to script in Lua on Roblox, and Lua.org provides great documentation for the Lua language in general.