Should all statistics students 
be programmers?

Transcript

1. Hadley Wickham 
 @hadleywickham
 Chief Scientist, RStudio Should all statistics

   students
 be programmers? July 2018 No!

2. Hadley Wickham 
 @hadleywickham
 Chief Scientist, RStudio July 2018 Should

   all statistics students
 program? Yes!

3. What should a statistics student be able to do? Model

4. What should a statistics student be able to do? Tidy

   Surprises, but doesn't scale Create new variables & new summaries Visualise Transform Model Communicate Scales, but doesn't (fundamentally) surprise Automate Store data consistently Import Understand

5. Two primary computer interfaces: point & click GUI

6. Or: program with a CLI

7. 1. Code is text 2. Code is read-able 3. Code

   is shareable 4. Code is open Why is programming preferable for statistics?

8. Code is text And this provides for two 
 extremely

   powerful techniques

9. ⌘C ⌘V

10. None

11. By Jenny Bryan ⌘⇧R

12. ⌘⇧K

13. Code is read-able

14. Much of my work is developing tools

15. library(tidycensus) geo <- get_acs( geography = "metropolitan statistical area...", variables

    = "DP03_0021PE", summary_var = "B01003_001", survey = "acs1", endyear = 2016 ) # Thanks to Kyle Walker (@kyle_e_walker) # For package and example A small example
16. None

17. big_metro <- geo %>% filter(summary_est > 2e6) %>% select(-variable) %>%

    mutate( NAME = gsub(" Metro Area", "", NAME) ) %>% separate(NAME, c("city", "state"), ", ") %>% mutate( city = str_extract(city, "^[A-Za-z ]+"), state = str_extract(state, "^[A-Za-z ]+"), name = paste0(city, ", ", state), summary_moe = na_if(summary_moe, -555555555) ) Followed by data munging
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19. big_metro %>% ggplot(aes( x = estimate, y = reorder(name, estimate))

    ) + geom_errorbarh( aes( xmin = estimate - moe, xmax = estimate + moe ), width = 0.1 ) + geom_point(color = "navy")

20. • • • • • • • • • •

    • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Indianapolis, IN Kansas City, MO Riverside, CA Charlotte, NC Dallas, TX Tampa, FL Detroit, MI Columbus, OH Phoenix, AZ Cincinnati, OH Houston, TX Orlando, FL Sacramento, CA Austin, TX San Antonio, TX San Juan, PR St, MO San Diego, CA Atlanta, GA Cleveland, OH Las Vegas, NV Miami, FL Denver, CO Minneapolis, MN Los Angeles, CA Pittsburgh, PA Baltimore, MD Portland, OR Philadelphia, PA Seattle, WA Chicago, IL Boston, MA Washington, DC San Francisco, CA New York, NY 0 10 20 30 estimate reorder(name, estimate)

21. library(tidyverse) library(magick) dir(pattern = ".png") %>% map(image_read) %>% image_join() %>%

    image_animate(fps = 1, loop = 25) %>% image_write("my_animation.gif") And hence you can read unfamiliar code https://twitter.com/ricardokriebel/status/849626401611411458 What does this code do?

22. https://twitter.com/ricardokriebel/status/849626401611411458

23. I live in fear of clicking the wrong thing

24. Code is shareable

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32. Why is sharing so important? Learn from others Open science

    Easily critique

33. Code is open

34. All modern programming languages are open source Free Students can

    use same tools as practitioners.
 Anyone can use best tools regardless of wealth.
 Anyone can re-run your analysis You can fix problems
 You can build your own tools Fluid

35. Conclusion

36. 1. Code is text 2. Code is read-able 3. Code

    is shareable 4. Code is open Why is programming preferable for statistics?