1.1 Where did this book come from?

Let me make something very, very clear…

I did not write this book.

This whole story started in the Summer of 2015. I was taking a late night swim on the Bodensee in Konstanz and saw a rusty object sticking out of the water. Upon digging it out, I realized it was an ancient usb-stick with the word YaRrr inscribed on the side. Intrigued, I brought it home and plugged it into my laptop. Inside the stick, I found a single pdf file written entirely in pirate-speak. After watching several pirate movies, I learned enough pirate-speak to begin translating the text to English. Sure enough, the book turned out to be an introduction to R called The Pirate’s Guide to R.

This book clearly has both massive historical and pedagogical significance. Most importantly, it turns out that pirates were programming in R well before the earliest known advent of computers. Of slightly less significance is that the book has turned out to be a surprisingly up-to-date and approachable introductory text to R. For both of these reasons, I felt it was my duty to share the book with the world.

If you or spot any typos or errors, or have any recommendations for future versions of the book, please write me at YaRrr.Book@gmail.com or tweet me @YaRrrBook.