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Are you going to be writing a lot of statistical analysis programs (R) or web application stuff (Python)?
by dev1n 10y ago
Are you going to be writing a lot of statistical analysis programs (R) or web application stuff (Python)?
- boniface316 10y agoI want to focus on statistical analysis. I would love to learn programming while doing that.
- JakeColtman 10y agoFor straight up data analysis R over python every time but the flip is python is a better gateway to more mainstream programming (IMO). At the end of the day motivation is the most important thing though. It seems likely that R will better fit your current interests and hence make you more likely to continue the journey so I'd go that way
- boniface316 10y agoI really appreciate your advice Jake. I will stick to R. Do you have experience with R?
- JakeColtman 10y agoWe used it at uni a lot but these days I tend to use it as a last mile language. Get the data, format it etc in python/f# then bring in the big R guns. Things like BMA or survival analysis barely exist in python. I have a great R stats book that I'll post when I get home (can't remember the name off the top of my head) Edit: to be clear I wouldn't recommend that pipeline! Most of my professional work has been in the above so I'm just more comfortable with it
- boniface316 10y agoomg! I would really appreciate that! I have been looking for data science books. If you don't mind, could you give me your opinion on this course? https://academy.microsoft.com/en-US/professional-degree/data-science/ https://academy.microsoft.com/en-US/professional-degree/data...
- JakeColtman 10y agoHere's a link to the book http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL/ http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL/, you can dl it from that page. Depending on how much stats theory you already know, you might find the labs sections the most useful. As for the course, I'd love to advise but I really don't feel qualified as I don't know much about it, your background or what you want to achieve from it. I've generally found msoft resources to be excellent in the past though. Generally where are you at? Do you have a good knowledge of the stats but not much programming or are you relatively new to both?
- boniface316 10y agoThanks for the book. I don't know much of a stat theory. At work, I enjoy working with numbers and data analyzing. I feel like I am "stuck" using excel. I didn't know that subject of data science existed until few weeks ago. I didn't know where to start so I decided to start with MSFT course. I am fairly new to programming. I have done simple IOT projects. I would happy learning how to program while learning data science stuff.
- minimaxir 10y agoYou should not stick to any one language. Both R and Python have their perks and definiciencies, and using both is powerful.
- curiousgal 10y agoListen to this guy, he's done wonders with both R and Python. Great blog dude!
- JakeColtman 10y agoThanks for the pointer to the blog, looks amazing. Bookmarked!
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- minimaxir 10y agoHah, thanks for the plug. :) To elaborate a bit, I use R for dplyr/ggplot2, both irreleplaceable for tabular data manipulation and visualization. Python I used for getting data, working with nontabular data from APIs (e.g JSON), and using Python tricks like list comprehensions and zip.
- boniface316 10y agoSorry mate. I didn't understand a thing you said :(.
- JakeColtman 10y agoFWIW I wasn't suggesting sticking to one language exclusively, some of the biggest jumps I've made have been caused by exposure to different paradigms. But for beginners I think it can be helpful to keep focus in one place. There's a lot of overhead involved in a language (tooling, IDEs, best practices, quirks etc.) that can get in the way of seeing the important stuff.
- boniface316 10y ago
- imauld 10y agoWhat about web applications that do statistical analysis?
- boniface316 10y agoI want to do that eventually. But I want to start somewhere.