This book is a TED book, i.e. a book paired with a TED talk so that ideas mentioned in the talk are explored in a little more detail. At the same time, TED books are intended to be short so that one can comfortably read it one sitting. This book is about 75 pages. The author gives various anecdotes from his life and encourages the reader to find “Nowhere” in one’s daily/weekly schedule so as to practice “Stillness”.

This book is mainly targeted towards R-newbies who have managed to learn some basic R syntax and are looking for some guidance on writing functions in R. The key idea that one needs to understand before writing functions is the way R organizes objects in various environments. The author explains this idea using the analogy of “file system in a computer”. The book uses two examples, 1) shuffling a deck and dealing cards from it 2) simulating the outcomes of a slot machine.

How have we arrived, in the relatively prosperous developed world, at least, at a cultural moment which values autonomy, personal freedom, fulfillment and human rights, and above all individualism, more highly than they have ever been valued before in human history, but at the same time these autonomous, free, self-fulfilling individuals are terrified of being alone with themselves? Think about it for a moment. It is truly very odd.

Via rockchalk : Rchaeology: The study of R programming by investigation of R source code. It is the effort to discern the programming strategies, idioms, and style of R programmers in order to better communicate with them. Rchaeologist : One who practices Rchaeology. There is a language gap between an R user and an R programmer. Users write “scripts" that use functions from R packages. Users don’t write (many) functions.

For those of us who are born before 1985, it is likely that we have seen two worlds; one, a world that wasn’t dependent on net and another, where our lives are dominated/controlled by the web and social media. The author says that that given this vantage point, we have a unique perspective of how things have changed. It is impossible to imagine a life without print. However before the 1450’s Guttenberg printing press invention, the knowledge access was primarily through oral tradition.