According to some, there seems to be a thousand-and-one things you should know about Music before you should ever pick up a guitar to play. How overwhelming for someone that's just starting out to play for the sheer joy of it. Memorizing basic chords, memorizing how they sound, and learning to reading tablature is enough work in itself for a beginner.
Later on, when you want to write your own songs then study "theory" and rocket science.
A baby decides one day that it's going to try to walk. It manages to pull itself up by the sofa and stands for the very first time. The parents smile and say to the baby "now that you can stand up, you must go to college". :p
