I do most of my stats work in Matlab, why should I use R?
Try R — A new online course, for free
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Re: Try R — A new online course, for free
#22For anyone interest in R without a background in statistics: I would highly recommend learning the two in parallel (if not statistics first). R is first and foremost a language for statistical computing. You really aren't going get much out of it without working on some interesting data/stats problems. Plus for most hacker types I think being able to play with the statistics you're learning about with R can be a grea…
This is a very, very good point. Though, many of the functions that R provides just won't make any sense at all if you don't have an intuition for the statistics behind it. I have found myself reading the papers published about specific functions in order to understand the results. Do you have any resources that you suggest for beginners in statistics looking to learn on their own?
You probably can't go wrong with the Introduction to Statistics class from Udacity
Re: Try R — A new online course, for free
#23So, I've started using R for some stuff I'm doing at work. I have to say that I'm basically treating it as a non visual spreadsheet. Seems everything I've used it for so far, I could have done with excel. Am I doing it wrong?
Re: Try R — A new online course, for free
#24I did my master thesis stat works in R. it was a pain at the begining because I was not very good with stats. so learn the stats alongside.
Re: Try R — A new online course, for free
#25For anyone interest in R without a background in statistics: I would highly recommend learning the two in parallel (if not statistics first). R is first and foremost a language for statistical computing. You really aren't going get much out of it without working on some interesting data/stats problems. Plus for most hacker types I think being able to play with the statistics you're learning about with R can be a grea…
This is a very, very good point. Though, many of the functions that R provides just won't make any sense at all if you don't have an intuition for the statistics behind it. I have found myself reading the papers published about specific functions in order to understand the results. Do you have any resources that you suggest for beginners in statistics looking to learn on their own?
Here's the resources I've used and found helpful (plus notes) for getting a least a basic grounding in statistics.
Khan Academy + "Head First Statistics"
-No matter what direction you want to go with your learning and before you start getting into street fights over Bayesian vs Frequentists philosophies, "stats 101" is the common base of 'statistics' for: Physicists, Engineers, Sociologists, Doctors, Economists, Journalists and more. Yes there are many "truths" in 'stats 101' that can be questioned, but this is the common language you'll want talking to any of these people.
"What is a p-value anyway?"
-A very quick, non-math heavy read on avoiding magical thinking in classical statistics.
"Data Analysis with Open Source Tools"
-I really love this book because it steps way out of "stats 101" land and gives a lot of really great real world advice and touches on many mathematical tools that can help you understand data. The chapter "What you really need to know about classical statistics" gives a refreshing overview of all the basic stats you've covered and explains many things that seem strange. Also the bibliography/recommended reading list from this book is fantastic.
The biggest thing I've noticed as I've learned more is that statistics is a gigantic field, and can mean extremely different things depending on what field you're in. Obviously learn the advanced statistics relevant to your interests, but when you get a chance listen to how other people think about stats, and keep learning.
Re: Try R — A new online course, for free
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a very, very good point. Though, many of the functions that R provides just won't make any sense at all if you don't have an intuition for the statistics behind it. I have found myself reading the papers published about specific functions in order to understand the results. Do you have any resources that you suggest for beginners in statistics looking to learn on their own?
You probably can't go wrong with the Introduction to Statistics class from Udacity http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/st101/CourseRev/1
I'm taking this right now. Can somebody provide some perspective on how thoroughly the course prepares you for using R? Does it give you a good enough grounding in statistics so that you won't shoot yourself in the foot with R?
Re: Try R — A new online course, for free
#27I'm just going through this and while I love the concept, there is one criticism from me. The course is very comfortable to walk through, but it doesn't make use of the benefits of the online environment.
It is just "this is how it goes, now type it" kind of teaching. I am almost done with the second session, and most likely have completely forgotten most of the content from the first. If anybody else is going to try teaching stuff in a similar way, please let me try to play/try out stuff as early as possible. Even if the exercises are completely pointless, please make them a bit harder than just exchanging an "+" for an "-". It feels so pointless having such a great learning environment and not using it to make it feel less of a brain-dump process.
Re: Try R — A new online course, for free
#28R doesn't seem to get much frontpage love on HN, or even if it does and I haven't seen, what would people suggest is the technology for statistics going forward? I really hoped it would be around Clojure (e.g. Incanter[1]) and not Python, for entirely selfish reasons.
[1]: http://incanter.org/
Re: Try R — A new online course, for free
#29I do most of my stats work in Matlab, why should I use R?
The main reason I would put forward is that it's completely free and open source. That means that all your work is transferable and usable by anybody, not just people who have the ability to use Matlab (including possibly your future self).
Re: Try R — A new online course, for free
#30Thanks. I was sorely disappointed yesterday when I found out that Coursera classes follow a strict schedule (and that I couldn't look at the material right then) and that I wouldn't be able to try the Data Analysis with R course on their site. I'll definitely check this out :).
Videos are available on Roger Peng's Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/user/rdpeng/videos?flow=grid&view...
You are my hero.