Episode 1

Spreadsheets, bikes, and the accidental empire of R packages

Before Hadley Wickham became a pillar of modern data science, he was a spreadsheet-loving teenager making databases for his dad’s job. In this episode, he reflects on the early days of his involvement with R, the birth of tidyverse, and how real-world unpredictability — like a bear in a field — shapes data science.

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EPISODE NOTES

Data scientists around the world owe a lot to Hadley Wickham — but how did he go from wrangling databases as a teen to shaping the future of statistical computing? In this episode of The Test Set, Hadley takes us through the winding path of his early days with R, the birth of the tidyverse, and the quirks of open source development. We dig into the philosophies behind his tools, why team dynamics matter, and how large language models are sparking his curiosity all over again.

    What's Inside:
  • Hadley’s first brush with R code … inside a Word doc
  • Consulting as a grad student — and learning what people really want from stats
  • How messy Excel sheets inspired the tidy data revolution
  • Writing R packages as a form of self-defense (and productivity)
  • The secret sauce of building the tidyverse team
  • On focus, burnout, and saying “no” to GitHub pull requests
  • Current obsession: using LLMs to make data science faster, easier, and more fun
  • How writing books is a form of tidying ideas, and how a Shiny textbook led to a custom bike

HOSTS & GUESTS

Michael Chow

Principal Software Engineer, Posit

Michael Chow

Hadley Wickman

Chief Scientist, Posit

Hadley Wickham

Wes McKinney

Principal Architect, Posit

Wes McKinney