First off, R may be annoying to learn (for instance, just concatenating two strings takes much more typing than Python, say) but once you get to data analysis it’s a dream. (And certainly more Pythonic than Python’s alternatives, which result in code cluttered with lots of periods and references to packages and sub-packages everywhere). Also, the packages work really well with each other—-with Python it seemed like every time I’d upgrade packages with pip, I’d end up with a new conflict I’d have to sort out. And, frankly, having to rely on Anaconda to keep everything from breaking is not exactly ideal. So props to CRAN!

Gotta say, though, one of the most annoying things about R is the name. Entering “R” as a search term on job boards tends to lead to a lot of not-very-helpful results.

Also, it’d help if the version release names had more order to them. So you’d read some ridiculous phrase like “parachute trombone” and know that it must’ve been released after “mouse parade”.