[R] how to keep up with R?

[Barry Rowlingson]

2008/9/19 Wensui Liu <liuwensui at gmail.com>:
> Dear Listers,
>
> I've been a big fan of R since graduate school. After working in the
> industry for years, I haven't had many opportunities to use R and am mainly
> using SAS. However, I am still forcing myself really hard to stay close to R
> by reading R-help and books and writing R code by myself for fun. But by and
> by, I start realizing I have hard time to keep up with R and am afraid that
> I would totally forget how to program in R.
>
> I really like it and am very unwilling to give it up. Is there any idea how
> I might keep touch with R without using it in work on daily basis? I really
> appreciate it.
>

 How about doing some kind of presentation on R at your work? It's
possible that some of the old fossils don't even know about it at all,
and use SAS because to them the alternative is SPSS. Do some R
evangelization. Find a task that R does better than SAS (not
difficult) and illustrate that to your superiors. Then when they ask
how much a corporate R license is, you tell them it's free, or say
it'll cost them a 2% raise in your salary, or say it will cost them
your resignation if you are feeling brave!

 Sure you may be tied to SAS for some other reasons, but there's no
reason why you can't use R for other things. Work out how to get it
into your corporate framework. Encourage your colleagues to look at it
for their tasks. Enthuse.

 The good thing about training and evangelization is that at first you
don't need mad skillz at R to do it. I have trouble understanding some
of the tips on R-help (especially when do.call() is used), but you can
teach new people with a good knowledge of the basics, which you should
still have. Eventually the hope is that enough people use R at your
workplace to develop a community where everyone keeps everyone else on
their toes with R questions!

 Good luck!

Barry