Fluctuat nec mergitur How to be a resilient R user

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# Fluctuat nec mergitur <br/> How to be a resilient R user
## Maëlle Salmon <br/> <a href="https://twitter.com/ma_salmon"><i class="fab  fa-twitter "></i></a> ma_salmon <a href="https://github.com/maelle"><i class="fab  fa-github "></i></a> maelle <a href="https://masalmon.eu"><i class="fas  fa-globe "></i></a> masalmon.eu
### 2019/01/10

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# How to be a resilient R user?

Know that feeling?

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# How to be a resilient R user?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="ca"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">My <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/rstats?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#rstats</a> learning path:<br><br>1. Install R<br>2. Install RStudio<br>3. Google &quot;How do I [THING I WANT TO DO] in R?&quot;<br><br>Repeat step 3 ad infinitum.</p>&mdash; Jesse Mostipak (@kierisi) <a href="https://twitter.com/kierisi/status/898534740051062785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">18 d’agost de 2017</a></blockquote>

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# How to be a resilient R user?
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I'll share tips in two categories!

* 📰 **Keep up to date** with R news... without feeling overwhelmed.

* ❓ **Ask for help** when needed, in an efficient way, in the right place.

🔗 Slidedeck up at [tiny.cc/rladiesparis](https://tiny.cc/rladiesparis)
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# My place in the R community

* Part-time work at rOpenSci & Locke Data.

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# My place in the R community

* R-Ladies Global social master

* R Weekly team member (and blogger myself!)

* Volunteer editor for rOpenSci software peer review

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# How to stay informed

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# Why to stay informed

* Solving the problems you didn't know you had

* Solving the problems you will have

🛠 learning about tools

🏭
 learning about people/organizations 
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# Infinite information flows

* Twitter \#rstats hashtag, Twitter timeline

* GitHub timeline

My tips

* Don't be a completist!

* MUTE the spam & what you don't like

* Follow accounts useful to you

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# News aggregators

* [R mailing lists](https://www.r-project.org/mail.html)

* [R Weekly](https://rweekly.org/)

* [rOpenSci biweekly newsletter](https://news.ropensci.org/)

* [R Bloggers](https://www.r-bloggers.com/)

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# Your news aggregator?

RSS feeds of _your_ favorite blogs

* [tidyverse.org/articles](https://tidyverse.org/articles)

* [ropensci.org/blog](https://ropensci.org/blog) & [ropensci.org/technotes/](https://ropensci.org/technotes/)

* [itsalocke.com/blog/](https://itsalocke.com/blog/)

* [rtask.thinkr.fr/blog/](https://rtask.thinkr.fr/blog/)

* [juliasilge.com/blog/](https://juliasilge.com/blog/)

* ...

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# R conferences

* satRdays ([Paris February the 23d](https://paris2019.satrdays.org/))

* useR! ([Toulouse, July 9-12](http://www.user2019.fr/))

* RStudio::conf

* etc.

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# R conferences

Attend or...

Make the most of what's online!

* Read the programs

* Read the slidedecks

* Watch the videos

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# How to know about R conferences

R Weekly conferences section 🚀!

Examples of conference material available *for free* 💃

* [SatRday Cape Town 2018, slidedecks and recordings](https://capetown2018.satrdays.org/#programme)

* [useR! 2018 videos](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_R5smHVXRYGhZYDJsnXTwg/videos)

* [RStudio conf 2018](https://www.rstudio.com/resources/videos/rstudioconf-2018-talks/)

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# Side-note, if you wanna speak...

R-Ladies abstract review system! Thanks Jennifer Thompson!

* [submit your abstract for review](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSck8FBjNWjziI8pPIoCBlf5J4oQ_6pzeUdbQ1HjYfJ2bNDwDw/viewform)

* [volunteer as a reviewer](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdj44iOqfg6cyhRH57YjQuI-OjbksDmY5LHfsqGSXZrhOONTw/viewform)

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# Other sources of information

* Podcasts! [Not So Standard Deviations](http://nssdeviations.com/), [Credibly Curious](https://soundcloud.com/crediblycurious).

* RStudio Joseph Rickert's Package Pics https://rviews.rstudio.com/2018/08/27/july-2018-top-40-new-packages/

* Going to meetups 😉

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# What to do with the information?
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Assess it!

* Much like you assess any piece of information

* By asking other people, see next section

For packages there are objective criteria.

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# How to assess packages?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="ca"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If you use software that lacks automated tests, you are the tests.</p>&mdash; Jenny Bryan (@JennyBryan) <a href="https://twitter.com/JennyBryan/status/1043307291909316609?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">22 de setembre de 2018</a></blockquote>

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# Assessment criteria for packages

* How active is its development?

* How well tested is it?

* How well documented is it?

* How popular is it?

* Is it developed by a person/org you trust?

Related to work in https://github.com/ropenscilabs/packagemetrics

See also https://simplystatistics.org/2015/11/06/how-i-decide-when-to-trust-an-r-package/

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# How to assess a package

LIVE DEMO

Links we've seen:

https://hadley.shinyapps.io/cran-downloads/

https://github.com/tidyverse/dplyr

https://github.com/tidyverse/dplyr/issues/

Examples of guidelines for packages: https://ropensci.github.io/dev_guide/

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# What to do with the information?
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* Use right away in real work?

* Try it right away?

* Store the information _somehow_

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# How to store information

* Twitter: favorites as bookmark? http://jsta.rbind.io/blog/making-a-twitter-dashboard-with-r/

* GitHub: https://github.com/maelle?tab=stars

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# How to store information

Find your own system! Keep the resources for yourself, or share.

📌 Print cheatsheets, make your own cheatsheets

📌 Create a private/public treasure trove like [Suzan Baert's resources repo](https://github.com/suzanbaert/Resources_and_Bookmarks)

[Post by Lise Vaudor in French: "Comment se souvenir de tout"](http://perso.ens-lyon.fr/lise.vaudor/se-souvenir-de-tout/)

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# How to ask for help

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# My typology of R questions

* Problem! Bug! Error!

* Discussion/debate (is there a tool in R for doing `foo`? how do I learn about `bar`? is `ggplot2` better than base plots?)

We'll tackle errors first.

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# When to ask for help?

After a reasonable effort to solve your problem _on your own_.

🔍 Read the docs,

🔍 Use a search engine (i.e. google your error message!),

🔍 Experiment.

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# Googling for help

From http://datacarpentry.org/semester-biology/materials/googling-for-help/

* _Get the vocabularly right_
* _Avoid extra words_
* _Specify the language_

And assess results' credibility (site, authors, date, scores, etc.)

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# Experiment, à la RDogLady

<div class="figure">
<img src="index_files/figure-html/unnamed-chunk-1-1.png" alt="Trying stuff until it works" width="267" />
<p class="caption">Trying stuff until it works</p>
</div>

Image by [The Practical Dev](http://twitter.com/thepracticaldev)
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# Experiment, à la RCatLady

<div class="figure">
<img src="index_files/figure-html/unnamed-chunk-2-1.png" alt="Changing stuff and seeing what happens" width="267" />
<p class="caption">Changing stuff and seeing what happens</p>
</div>

Image by [The Practical Dev](http://twitter.com/thepracticaldev)

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# Error solving with `reprex`

Goal: from a bug in your big script to the tiniest buggy script possible.

Jenny Bryan's `reprex` & its docs

* A concept, reprex for "reproducible example".

* A great package for communicating a reprex.

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# Why use `reprex`?

* Tiniest buggy script possible is easier to fix! Or you'll even fix things in the process!

* You can send your question/bug report in a good format for helpers!

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# `reprex` demo!

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# More info about `reprex` &co

* https://resources.rstudio.com/webinars/help-me-help-you-creating-reproducible-examples-jenny-bryan

* https://reprex.tidyverse.org/articles/reprex-dos-and-donts.html

* https://github.com/ropensci/gistr

* https://github.com/MilesMcBain/gistfo

* https://github.com/yonicd/carbonate

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# Where to ask for help?

The right place depends on:

* your question

* your confidence

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# Safest places

* your colleagues or friends

* R-Ladies 
    * Local slack?
    * [R-Ladies remote slack](http://eepurl.com/dy1bm1)
    * [R-Ladies global community slack](https://rladies-community-slack.herokuapp.com/)
    
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* Slack R francophone https://frama.link/r-grrr

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* [R4DS online community](https://www.rfordatasci.com/)

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# Public Q&As 1/2

* In packages: Bug reports. See package docs, or find their online home.

* [Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/). For short questions/bugs/errors only.

* Mailing lists https://www.r-project.org/mail.html

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# Public Q&A 2/2

* Twitter \#rstats. Short questions, or link to longer questions.

* [rOpenSci forum](https://discuss.ropensci.org/)

* [RStudio community forum](https://community.rstudio.com/)

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# Where to ask for help?

Finding the right place might require some trial and error. 🕵️‍♀️

Further resources

* http://communitycalls.ropensci.org/#2017-03-07

* https://masalmon.eu/2018/07/22/wheretogethelp/

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# Help others with their R problems!

* because it's a nice thing to do 😉

* because it's fun (trivia! puzzles!) 🤓

* to keep your knowledge active & learn things 💪

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# Stay calm, learn how to

* 📰 Read the news,

* ❓ Ask for help.

[tiny.cc/rladiesparis](https://tiny.cc/rladiesparis)

Slides created via the R package [**xaringan**](https://github.com/yihui/xaringan) by Yihui Xie with the R-Ladies theme by Alison Presmanes Hill 💜.