The past few months have been a flurry of activity around the homestead. After doubling down on the MOOC content, I completed both MongoDB’s free course on MongoDB for Developers (teaching the basics of MongoDB via Python) and Coursera’s Computing for Data Analysis (a surprisingly challenging intro to Rstats). I’m currently auditing the Coursera Statistics One program while focusing most of my efforts on Jeff Leek’s Data Analysis course, which is the main subject for this entry.

Others have opined more elegantly on the value of the course. I’ll only add a personal feeling of joyous relief that after an eternity of puzzling over various statistical texts and posts, the techniques and terminology are beginning to become familiar. I’m very excited to be in this current run of the Data Analysis class and have a structured opportunity to apply these techniques to solve real problems. There’s a major motivator from a professional project I’m running with the honorable Russell Thomas which will culminate in at least one talk at RSA next February.

Apart from the statistical based work, after attending three stimulating days with Stephen Few in early October, I’m now working on an internal Tableau style guide. This document, which I hope to source on Github, will be for my team’s use and forms the core of my presentation to my organization’s internal user group later this month.

Until next time, may your dreams be filled with well themed ggplot exploratory graphs!