Grant McDermott
@gmcd.bsky.social
Economics and data science | Former academic now working in the tech sector | Views my own | 🇿🇦 in 🇺🇸 | https://grantmcdermott.com/
Pinned
Grant McDermott
@gmcd.bsky.social
· Aug 23
A few months ago, I gave a workshop on “(Pretty) big data wrangling with DuckDB and Polars”.
Slides, notebooks etc. are all available here: grantmcdermott.com/duckdb-polars/
#EconSky
Slides, notebooks etc. are all available here: grantmcdermott.com/duckdb-polars/
#EconSky
"Great news, I booked a weekend away."
<Zen master: we'll see>
"Bad news. We have to miss Springboks v France."
<ZM: we'll see>
"Good news. The Boks get a first half red card, so we miss that at least."
<ZM: we'll see>
"So, about the actual result..."
<Zen master: we'll see>
"Bad news. We have to miss Springboks v France."
<ZM: we'll see>
"Good news. The Boks get a first half red card, so we miss that at least."
<ZM: we'll see>
"So, about the actual result..."
Zen master vibes as my farsighted wife booked family travel weeks ago, causing me to miss the second half. #FRAvRSA
November 9, 2025 at 1:50 AM
"Great news, I booked a weekend away."
<Zen master: we'll see>
"Bad news. We have to miss Springboks v France."
<ZM: we'll see>
"Good news. The Boks get a first half red card, so we miss that at least."
<ZM: we'll see>
"So, about the actual result..."
<Zen master: we'll see>
"Bad news. We have to miss Springboks v France."
<ZM: we'll see>
"Good news. The Boks get a first half red card, so we miss that at least."
<ZM: we'll see>
"So, about the actual result..."
The non rugby mind cannot comprehend these two images.
November 8, 2025 at 5:05 PM
The non rugby mind cannot comprehend these two images.
Reposted by Grant McDermott
🎨 How to create elegant #dataviz with base #rstats and the #tinyplot pkg
📈 useR! 2025 presentation by Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOB-...
📈 useR! 2025 presentation by Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOB-...
tinyplot: convenient and customizable base R plots - Grant McDermott
YouTube video by useR! Conference
www.youtube.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:38 AM
🎨 How to create elegant #dataviz with base #rstats and the #tinyplot pkg
📈 useR! 2025 presentation by Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOB-...
📈 useR! 2025 presentation by Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOB-...
Beyond dispute IMO.
And it's funny to see people twist themselves into knots trying to argue otherwise--including far too many of my fellow 🇿🇦 countrymen--for precisely the reason that Squidge points out: we all instinctively *feel* that they are the greatest.
And it's funny to see people twist themselves into knots trying to argue otherwise--including far too many of my fellow 🇿🇦 countrymen--for precisely the reason that Squidge points out: we all instinctively *feel* that they are the greatest.
Ten years ago today, Richie McCaw lifted the Webb Ellis Cup for the second time and, in the process, crowned the 2015 All Blacks as possibly the greatest team of all time. We dig into how Steve Hansen's side changed the game, and shaped everything that has happened since...
youtu.be/xQSi1tXJYdc?...
youtu.be/xQSi1tXJYdc?...
So were the 2015 All Blacks the Greatest Team of All Time?
YouTube video by Squidge Rugby
youtu.be
October 31, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Beyond dispute IMO.
And it's funny to see people twist themselves into knots trying to argue otherwise--including far too many of my fellow 🇿🇦 countrymen--for precisely the reason that Squidge points out: we all instinctively *feel* that they are the greatest.
And it's funny to see people twist themselves into knots trying to argue otherwise--including far too many of my fellow 🇿🇦 countrymen--for precisely the reason that Squidge points out: we all instinctively *feel* that they are the greatest.
Nice. Looks like my `tinyplot` talk from userR! 2025 is up on YouTube. youtu.be/MOB-QS-vMeY?...
#rstats
#rstats
tinyplot: convenient and customizable base R plots - Grant McDermott
YouTube video by useR! Conference
youtu.be
October 30, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Nice. Looks like my `tinyplot` talk from userR! 2025 is up on YouTube. youtu.be/MOB-QS-vMeY?...
#rstats
#rstats
Old ground, but I still cannot believe how poorly 🐍 plays with other languages. Okay, we're going to force you to do everything in a venv (b/c otherwise we break everything...) But that venv is going to auto instantiate and override any system level env vars or processes that you've set ☠️
September 30, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Old ground, but I still cannot believe how poorly 🐍 plays with other languages. Okay, we're going to force you to do everything in a venv (b/c otherwise we break everything...) But that venv is going to auto instantiate and override any system level env vars or processes that you've set ☠️
Successfully nerdsniped myself into writing a little script for this. gist.github.com/grantmcdermo...
(Longer than it probably needs to be bc of annoying Wiki table formatting, but I'm too lazy to find another source.)
(Longer than it probably needs to be bc of annoying Wiki table formatting, but I'm too lazy to find another source.)
September 30, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Successfully nerdsniped myself into writing a little script for this. gist.github.com/grantmcdermo...
(Longer than it probably needs to be bc of annoying Wiki table formatting, but I'm too lazy to find another source.)
(Longer than it probably needs to be bc of annoying Wiki table formatting, but I'm too lazy to find another source.)
No. (Carry on.)
September 28, 2025 at 9:30 PM
No. (Carry on.)
Reposted by Grant McDermott
Whoa—my book is up for pre-order!
𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭 & 𝐌𝐋 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧 #Rstats 𝐚𝐧𝐝 #PyData
The book presents an ultra-simple and powerful workflow to make sense of ± any model you fit
The web version will stay free forever and my proceeds go to charity.
tinyurl.com/4fk56fc8
𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭 & 𝐌𝐋 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧 #Rstats 𝐚𝐧𝐝 #PyData
The book presents an ultra-simple and powerful workflow to make sense of ± any model you fit
The web version will stay free forever and my proceeds go to charity.
tinyurl.com/4fk56fc8
September 17, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Whoa—my book is up for pre-order!
𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭 & 𝐌𝐋 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧 #Rstats 𝐚𝐧𝐝 #PyData
The book presents an ultra-simple and powerful workflow to make sense of ± any model you fit
The web version will stay free forever and my proceeds go to charity.
tinyurl.com/4fk56fc8
𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭 & 𝐌𝐋 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧 #Rstats 𝐚𝐧𝐝 #PyData
The book presents an ultra-simple and powerful workflow to make sense of ± any model you fit
The web version will stay free forever and my proceeds go to charity.
tinyurl.com/4fk56fc8
Clearly not the most important news coming out of Oregon tonight, but I just added a recession bars example to the tinyplot “Tips & tricks” vignette. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/vig... #rstats
September 28, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Clearly not the most important news coming out of Oregon tonight, but I just added a recession bars example to the tinyplot “Tips & tricks” vignette. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/vig... #rstats
Reposted by Grant McDermott
Ask yourself if this is the kind of country you want to live in
I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)
September 25, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Ask yourself if this is the kind of country you want to live in
`tinyplot` 0.5.0 is now available from CRAN & R-universe. Alongside bug fixes & internal improvements, this release includes some cool new features like bubble chart + dual legend support, element dodging, & ephemeral themes.
Detailed changelog: grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/NEW...
#rstats #dataviz
Detailed changelog: grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/NEW...
#rstats #dataviz
September 23, 2025 at 2:41 AM
`tinyplot` 0.5.0 is now available from CRAN & R-universe. Alongside bug fixes & internal improvements, this release includes some cool new features like bubble chart + dual legend support, element dodging, & ephemeral themes.
Detailed changelog: grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/NEW...
#rstats #dataviz
Detailed changelog: grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/NEW...
#rstats #dataviz
Update: it won't see us through the winter, but a respectable harvest through the season.
September 19, 2025 at 12:54 AM
Update: it won't see us through the winter, but a respectable harvest through the season.
Word. Whenever someone asks me for career advice these days, I reply without irony: "Work on your core."
September 18, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Word. Whenever someone asks me for career advice these days, I reply without irony: "Work on your core."
Reposted by Grant McDermott
#rstats #econsky
fixest v0.13.0 is finally out!
It's still about making OLS and GLM estimations easy.
Some major changes:
- *default* VCOV becomes iid always!
- singletons are removed by default!
See all the changes here:
github.com/lrberge/fixe...
fixest v0.13.0 is finally out!
It's still about making OLS and GLM estimations easy.
Some major changes:
- *default* VCOV becomes iid always!
- singletons are removed by default!
See all the changes here:
github.com/lrberge/fixe...
fixest: Fast Fixed-Effects Estimations
Fast and user-friendly estimation of econometric models with multiple fixed-effects. Includes ordinary least squares (OLS), generalized linear models (GLM) and the negative binomial. The core of the p...
cran.r-project.org
September 10, 2025 at 7:34 PM
#rstats #econsky
fixest v0.13.0 is finally out!
It's still about making OLS and GLM estimations easy.
Some major changes:
- *default* VCOV becomes iid always!
- singletons are removed by default!
See all the changes here:
github.com/lrberge/fixe...
fixest v0.13.0 is finally out!
It's still about making OLS and GLM estimations easy.
Some major changes:
- *default* VCOV becomes iid always!
- singletons are removed by default!
See all the changes here:
github.com/lrberge/fixe...
Reposted by Grant McDermott
one amazing feature here is simply loading the entire dataset would probably freeze your laptop!
instead you can run this regression quickly and not worry about memory problems, thanks to the magic of duckdb and dbreg
instead you can run this regression quickly and not worry about memory problems, thanks to the magic of duckdb and dbreg
To borrow another example, taken from the `dbreg` README: github.com/grantmcdermo...
Here I am running a fixed-effects regression on 180 million(!) row parquet dataset... and it completes **< 2 seconds**... on my laptop 🤯
This is powered by @duckdb.org under the hood.
#rstats #econsky
Here I am running a fixed-effects regression on 180 million(!) row parquet dataset... and it completes **< 2 seconds**... on my laptop 🤯
This is powered by @duckdb.org under the hood.
#rstats #econsky
August 27, 2025 at 8:14 PM
one amazing feature here is simply loading the entire dataset would probably freeze your laptop!
instead you can run this regression quickly and not worry about memory problems, thanks to the magic of duckdb and dbreg
instead you can run this regression quickly and not worry about memory problems, thanks to the magic of duckdb and dbreg
Good on Lisa Cook.
As the first rule states, do not obey in advance.
As the first rule states, do not obey in advance.
August 26, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Good on Lisa Cook.
As the first rule states, do not obey in advance.
As the first rule states, do not obey in advance.
Reposted by Grant McDermott
{tinytable} 0.13.0 for #RStats can now draw interactive tables with sorting, filtering & pages!
And the 📦 is still an ultra-simple, powerful, and 0-dep way to create beautiful tables in basically any format: tex, typ, docx, pdf, png, md, etc
Gallery & Docs: vincentarelbundock.github.io/tinytable/
And the 📦 is still an ultra-simple, powerful, and 0-dep way to create beautiful tables in basically any format: tex, typ, docx, pdf, png, md, etc
Gallery & Docs: vincentarelbundock.github.io/tinytable/
August 19, 2025 at 9:24 PM
{tinytable} 0.13.0 for #RStats can now draw interactive tables with sorting, filtering & pages!
And the 📦 is still an ultra-simple, powerful, and 0-dep way to create beautiful tables in basically any format: tex, typ, docx, pdf, png, md, etc
Gallery & Docs: vincentarelbundock.github.io/tinytable/
And the 📦 is still an ultra-simple, powerful, and 0-dep way to create beautiful tables in basically any format: tex, typ, docx, pdf, png, md, etc
Gallery & Docs: vincentarelbundock.github.io/tinytable/
To borrow another example, taken from the `dbreg` README: github.com/grantmcdermo...
Here I am running a fixed-effects regression on 180 million(!) row parquet dataset... and it completes **< 2 seconds**... on my laptop 🤯
This is powered by @duckdb.org under the hood.
#rstats #econsky
Here I am running a fixed-effects regression on 180 million(!) row parquet dataset... and it completes **< 2 seconds**... on my laptop 🤯
This is powered by @duckdb.org under the hood.
#rstats #econsky
![Running dbreg::dbreg() on a full year of NYC taxi data... and it takes less than 2 seconds.
dbreg(
tip_amount ~ fare_amount + passenger_count | month + vendor_name,
path = "read_parquet('nyc-taxi/**/*.parquet')", ## path to hive-partitioned dataset
vcov = "hc1"
)
#> [dbreg] Estimating compression ratio...
#> [dbreg] Data has 178,544,324 rows and 24 unique FE groups.
#> [dbreg] Using strategy: compress
#> [dbreg] Executing compress strategy SQL
#>
#> Compressed OLS estimation, Dep. Var.: tip_amount
#> Observations.: 178,544,324 (original) | 70,782 (compressed)
#> Standard Errors: Heteroskedasticity-robust
#> Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)
#> fare_amount 0.106744 0.000068 1564.742 < 2.2e-16 ***
#> passenger_count -0.029086 0.000106 -273.866 < 2.2e-16 ***
#> ---
#> Signif. codes: 0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qww63z2t5rrhniusz5x7gk23/bafkreiajmnp6jiaycebutwid2lxx57hrz3zc3qp2p5ijnoqiyqag34xpe4@jpeg)
August 25, 2025 at 6:38 PM
To borrow another example, taken from the `dbreg` README: github.com/grantmcdermo...
Here I am running a fixed-effects regression on 180 million(!) row parquet dataset... and it completes **< 2 seconds**... on my laptop 🤯
This is powered by @duckdb.org under the hood.
#rstats #econsky
Here I am running a fixed-effects regression on 180 million(!) row parquet dataset... and it completes **< 2 seconds**... on my laptop 🤯
This is powered by @duckdb.org under the hood.
#rstats #econsky
Nice post by @jamesbrandecon.bsky.social on the scaling benefits that come from offloading your big regression jobs to a database. jamesbrandecon.github.io/blog/posts_h...
(Showcasing some new-ish 📦 s that he, @apoorvalal.com & myself have been working on, but haven't really advertised yet.)
(Showcasing some new-ish 📦 s that he, @apoorvalal.com & myself have been working on, but haven't really advertised yet.)
2025-08-24_dbreg-Is-Super-Fast
jamesbrandecon.github.io
August 25, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Nice post by @jamesbrandecon.bsky.social on the scaling benefits that come from offloading your big regression jobs to a database. jamesbrandecon.github.io/blog/posts_h...
(Showcasing some new-ish 📦 s that he, @apoorvalal.com & myself have been working on, but haven't really advertised yet.)
(Showcasing some new-ish 📦 s that he, @apoorvalal.com & myself have been working on, but haven't really advertised yet.)
#rstats Seen over at Mastodon: the `terminalgraphics` 📦 let's you render R plots _directly_ in a terminal window (e.g., R process launched from the command line, neovim or emacs). codeberg.org/djvanderlaan...
Get it: `remotes::install_git(url = "https://codeberg.org/djvanderlaan/terminalgraphics")`
Get it: `remotes::install_git(url = "https://codeberg.org/djvanderlaan/terminalgraphics")`
August 17, 2025 at 11:06 PM
#rstats Seen over at Mastodon: the `terminalgraphics` 📦 let's you render R plots _directly_ in a terminal window (e.g., R process launched from the command line, neovim or emacs). codeberg.org/djvanderlaan...
Get it: `remotes::install_git(url = "https://codeberg.org/djvanderlaan/terminalgraphics")`
Get it: `remotes::install_git(url = "https://codeberg.org/djvanderlaan/terminalgraphics")`
Reposted by Grant McDermott
economic models are surprisingly fun devices for expressing strident opinions with no empirical basis.
attempt to bait theorists into working on platform design in tech with a caveman model of my own.
apoorvalal.github.io/lalgorithms/...
attempt to bait theorists into working on platform design in tech with a caveman model of my own.
apoorvalal.github.io/lalgorithms/...
A Simple Model of Online Platform Enshittification
This is a model of “Green-Daying”:= services often start out as a core product with a well-defined set of features for a target user-base, and slowly morph into a generic, engagement-hungry machine.
apoorvalal.github.io
August 10, 2025 at 11:48 PM
economic models are surprisingly fun devices for expressing strident opinions with no empirical basis.
attempt to bait theorists into working on platform design in tech with a caveman model of my own.
apoorvalal.github.io/lalgorithms/...
attempt to bait theorists into working on platform design in tech with a caveman model of my own.
apoorvalal.github.io/lalgorithms/...
Reposted by Grant McDermott
If you want to enjoy my #useR2025 post-spamming of last week's #rstats stuff, but a bit more organized and consolidated, then boy do I have a blog post for you:
kbodwin.github.io/paRticles/po...
kbodwin.github.io/paRticles/po...
UseR!2025: My Top 10 – paRticles
kbodwin.github.io
August 15, 2025 at 11:19 PM
If you want to enjoy my #useR2025 post-spamming of last week's #rstats stuff, but a bit more organized and consolidated, then boy do I have a blog post for you:
kbodwin.github.io/paRticles/po...
kbodwin.github.io/paRticles/po...
I had a blast at #useR2025.
Here are my slides on `tinyplot`. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/vig...
(Rendering of the title slide is a bit off on mobile. I'll fix when when I get sec.)
Here are my slides on `tinyplot`. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/vig...
(Rendering of the title slide is a bit off on mobile. I'll fix when when I get sec.)
tinyplot –
grantmcdermott.com
August 10, 2025 at 5:39 PM
I had a blast at #useR2025.
Here are my slides on `tinyplot`. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/vig...
(Rendering of the title slide is a bit off on mobile. I'll fix when when I get sec.)
Here are my slides on `tinyplot`. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/vig...
(Rendering of the title slide is a bit off on mobile. I'll fix when when I get sec.)