The Power of Great Datasets

There's a big difference between "Okay Datasets" and "Great Datasets".

rstudio::global 2021 package dev

The Power of Great Datasets

January 21, 2021

There are a few classic datasets, like mtcars, nycflights, or Titanic passengers. They're okay, but they leave something to be desired for folks learning R: they're kind of boring.

There's a big difference between "Okay Datasets" and "Great Datasets". Great Datasets prompt you to exclaim, "That's so cool!" They get your blood pumping and mind racing with questions you want answered. They give tremendous motivation to answer those questions. And in answering those questions, you'll probably learn some R.

I want you to curate Great Datasets. You'll contribute to the richness of our community, you'll learn some R yourself, and you'll feel fantastic when someone finds your Great Dataset and exclaims, "That's so cool!"

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Alex Cookson, Jeroen Ooms and Marie Vendettuoli Q&A

About the speaker

Alex Cookson

Alex Cookson helps the Customer Intelligence team at the Royal Canadian Mint make the most of their data. When he's not working on A/B testing, recommendation engines, or exploratory data analysis at the Mint, he can be found participating in Tidy Tuesday or thinking up cool datasets to explore. And when he's not doing that, he's probably cycling around Toronto or doting on his two cats, Tom Tom and Ruby.