Live Office Hours
Join datalab.cc founder Barton Poulson for free, live, online office hours, where he shares his experiences and insights, and where your questions are welcome. These once-per-month events are live streamed simultaneously on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. Audience members can participate on any platform. The general links are here, along with recordings of previous events:
Past Events
Creative Coding for Data People
24 October 2023
Art is good for you, but not just in terms of making you cultured. Making art through "creative coding" is a great way to learn new programming skills and to learn to think outside the box. Join Barton Poulson, PhD, as he discusses his own experiences with creative coding and see how you can enhance your data skills by working artistically.
Sturgeon's Law in Data Work
12 October 2023
Science-fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon responded to criticisms of his genre by claiming that "ninety percent of everything is crap," a saying that applies to data work as it does to fiction or anything else. But this is not a cause for hopelessness; rather, this realization should (a) encourage more humility in doing data work; and (b) create greater appreciation for quality work. Join Barton Poulson, PhD, as he discusses the challenges and rewards of working with data in a imperfect world.
Keeping Data Work Simple
19 September 2023
Simple data and simple methods can make for better insights. Join Barton Poulson to discuss how methods like simple means, unweighted factors, and conventional linear regression can give you more robust and generalizable insights into your research questions.
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Data
14 September 2023
The three R's – reduce, reuse, and recycle – apply to data as well as they do to paper and plastic. Join Barton Poulson to discuss ways to be more mindful of how data is created, shared, and applied to get actionable insights without wasting time, money, or goodwill.
Not All Roads Lead to Python
22 August 2023
Join Barton Poulson to discuss the importance of choosing the right data tool for your work, which may be a spreadsheet, an analytics app, a statistical application, a visualization platform, or, just maybe (but maybe not), a programming language like R or Python.
Autodidact Swagger
10 August 2023
Join Barton Poulson to discuss how being an "autodidact," or a person who can learn things on their own, can help you develop "swagger," or the confidence to master new skills and take on new challenges.