Reflections on Stata as a Tool for Life-long Learning Lee Sieswerda Epidemiologist, Thunder Bay District Health Unit Assistant Professor, Northern Ontario School of Medicine

Streptococcus pyogenes

Necrotizing fasciitis

Principles of adult learning – Participatory - adults learn by doing – Self-directed and informal – They do most of their learning on their own, jumping around to find what is most relevant and interesting. – Connected to existing knowledge and experience – Practical and goal-oriented - learn what they need to solve a problem – Convenient – barriers to real progress should be minimized

“Creativity is a learning process where the teacher and the pupil are located in the same individual” Arthur Koestler British novelist and essayist

“Creativity in science could be described as the act of putting two and two together to make five” Arthur Koestler

tabulate -> svy tabulate -> svy estimation regress -> estimation commands -> poisson -> nbreg regress -> estimation commands -> GLM -> xt commands -> xtmixed

Stata characteristics Design elements responsive, consistent syntax, emphasis on typing and syntax Full suite of procedures at base price Documentation well-written, encyclopaedic, cross- linked Extendible and supported ability of user to add procedures good community of programmers Programming same language as syntax Not so esoteric that learning is actually impeded Principles of Adult Education Participatory - learn by doing Self-directed and informal Connected to existing knowledge and experience Practical and goal-oriented - learn what they need to solve a problem Convenient – barriers to real progress should be minimized

A Tool?

A library?

Software?

A knowledgeable expert?

“I keep saying that the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians...and I’m not kidding.” Hal Varian Chief economist, Google