This website
With the large scale collection of data, and with companies realising the value it can have, it has never been more important to have an understanding of the surrounding principles. Big data has led this revolution and it has provided a great foundation on which to build, because there is now a genuine interest.
The crucial thing for me is that you even came to this site. By doing so, you have expressed at least some desire to want to learn more about data and Statistics, and that is the most important thing - a want to learn more.
Thanks for reading!
Package Playground
The Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) has over 10,000 packages, and more keep being created. Occasionally I will come across one that I want to “play” with in order to find out whether it is useful or interesting; the only way to know is to try it out. These posts will be me trying out the package to understand what they offer and if I can see a personal use for them. Will the code/post be perfect or error free? Potentially, but more likely not; I will highlight issues I had as it might be of more use to know how I did/didn’t overcome them than a perfect script.
Err… to R!
The general desire to learn a programming language is increasing. Whilst R has a fairly steep learning curve in comparison to other languages, it was designed to analyse data. Once you take into account CRAN, R is one of the most powerful analytics tools available. The goal of this course is to get you comfortable using R, and the way in which it shall be presented is such that you can hopefully learn another language - if wanted/needed - quickly as the way in which the material is presented is designed to help you understand how to learn a programming language; not just how to learn R.
BuildeR
One of the first things I do when looking to do something new in R is turn to the community. Solutions to current problems, or inspiration to try something new, have come from Stack Exchange, R-Bloggers, or shinyapps.io multiple times. This series of posts will be code that I have written, they will either be snippets of code or walkthroughs as I build a function or app, so that others might find solutions or inspiration.
Myself
Apart from the fascination with data and Statistics (to be expected from someone with a Ph.D. in Statistics) I am all around fairly geeky. Outside of that I pursue things that I find interesting or intriguing.
I play video games, although not as much as I used to/want to, and I even built a couple because I find coding and pushing myself to do new things to be fun. Over the past few years I have started running on a regular basis, as opposed to signing up to races and not training, and I find it a great way of clearing my head - as I also enjoy baking it’s a great way of keeping in shape.
This site may contain more than just data and Statistics related things, although that will be its primary focus.
I remember when I was doing my undergrad people having “that look” when I told them I was doing Statistics, and the response was usually “I’ve never been good at Maths”. Now I am finding the more common response is one of interest, and occasionally a desire to learn some coding skills; although I still get that look.
Standard Disclaimer: The thoughts on here are my own. They do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
