Starting an R Book Club: Cooking Up Friendships in Isolation

Amidst a global pandemic there’s been one consistency in my life: every Tuesday a group of friends meet to discuss Hadley Wickham’s Advanced R.

Starting an R Book Club: Cooking Up Friendships in Isolation

January 21, 2021

Amidst a global pandemic there’s been one consistency in my life: every Tuesday a group of friends meet to discuss Hadley Wickham’s Advanced R. I crowdsourced interest using the R4DS Slack and the results were magical: a group of incredibly curious and generous people motivated to learn and teach one another emerged. The meetings evolved from a group of strangers giving timid presentations to a safe space where we share and improve upon personal applications. The 1 club has grown to 3 regional cohorts, and became a model for discussing other books too. This talk will go over the structure of our meetings in hopes of empowering others to start their own book clubs, showcasing a different way people can create and engage in communities.

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Maya Gans and Kara Woo Q&A


About the speaker

I am a mycologist turned data scientist. I love statistics, data visualization, and all things JavaScript. I am currently an intern at RStudio designing a visual block-based programming language. I create music-related infographics for JamBase.com. When I’m not coding, I’m climbing tall mountains.