Most Recent Episode
Spreadsheets, bikes, and the accidental empire of R packages — with Hadley Wickham Before Hadley Wickham became a pillar of modern data science, he was a spreadsheet-loving teenager making databases for his dad’s job. In this episode, he reflects on the early days of his involvement with R, the birth of tidyverse, and how real-world
Time: 28:28
Before Hadley Wickham became a pillar of modern data science, he was a spreadsheet-loving teenager making databases for his dad’s job. In this episode, he reflects on the early days of his involvement with R, the birth of tidyverse, and how real-world unpredictability — like a bear in a field — shapes data science.
What’s Inside:
Hadley’s first brush with R code … inside a Word docConsulting as a grad student — and learning what people really want from statsHow messy Excel sheets inspired the tidy data revolutionWriting R packages as a form of self-defense (and productivity)The secret sauce of building the tidyverse teamOn focus, burnout, and saying “no” to GitHub pull requestsCurrent obsession: using LLMs to make data science faster, easier, and more funHow writing books is a form of tidying ideas, and how a Shiny textbook led to a custom bike
GUID: Buzzsprout-17423698
Release Date: 30/06/2025, 18:00:00
