First let’s get this out of the way

Ah the great language wars of the past three years where we waxed poetically over using R vs Python for data analysis. Enough digital ink has been spilled to last us for ever, so here is what I think:

If you’re a programmer and you want to get into data science, you’ll want to learn Python. If you’re an established data analyst or classic statistician, you’ll want to learn R.

I say that mainly because of the mechanics of the languages themselves and not what they actually do. You can write crappy code in either and it’s still crappy.

I don’t think it really matters what language you use

Really, I don’t. I find that one of the best ways to stay on top of job trends is to constantly look at what my favorite companies are looking for in candidates.

Recently I came across a post that said something like You need to know Python but we'll consider you if you know R. I found that rather interesting.

I guess if you don’t take standardization into account I don’t know why it would matter if you use R or Python. If I were hiring you for a position, I’d rather know that you can solve problems in whatever language needs to be used, within reason.

I’ve been trying to think of a good reason why you might only want a candidate that knows a specific language? R for example has caret and Python has scikit learn. If you know the basics of one, you should be able to dive-in and debug a piece of code if your coworker is having a problem.

I think that companies like StitchFix do a great job of letting their employees use whatever tools they need to get the job done.

Why

I care much more about your ability to think programmatically and solve problems than I do the language you do it in. Yes there is beauty in code and in the world of business a lot of times we just need to G.S.D. (Get Shit Done).