Libby Heeren
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libbyheeren.bsky.social
Libby Heeren
@libbyheeren.bsky.social
2.8K followers 440 following 2.9K posts
Posit DS Hangout host & data educator. Data Weasel. Community Builder. Teaches R+Python.

🔉 Heeren == "hair-en" ✨

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/libbyheeren
DS Hangout: https://pos.it/dsh
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libbyheeren.bsky.social
Look how huge it is! It's almost too heavy to hold, even when it's empty 😅
Two mugs on a table. The mugs sit on a cutting/sewing mat. The one on the left is white with an RStudio logo. The one on the right is white with Steven Universe characters on it. Both mugs are large, but the Steven Universe one on the right is taller and wider than the RStudio one on the left.
November 12, 2025 at 3:41 AM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
I have two mugs that are almost too huge to use, and they're both magnificent. This one makes my heart glow & is full of coffee. I guess it's vintage now! Or special edition? #rstats #databs #RStudio

(The other one is a Steven Universe mug covered in all the characters! It's almost a soup bowl 😂)
Libby's right hand holds a large white coffee mug that has the RStudio logo on it. The background is a white poster with North American bird species and illustrations on it.
November 11, 2025 at 5:25 PM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
new #dplyr filtering function who dis 😍 meet filter_out()!

👍 GO PUT A THUMBS UP ON DAVIS'S TIDYUP THINGY ON GITHUB TO SHARE MY ENTHUSIASMMMM!! #rstats #databs

And, you know, provide your thoughts on this newly-proposed function if you have them 😌
A screenshot of code that uses the dplyr function called filter, which is built to include rows, in order to exclude them instead. The result also filters out rows where values are NA, which isn't helpful usually. It then shows the messy code you'd need to use to not exclude those NAs, and compares it to some very clean code using a newly proposed function called filter_out, which does not exclude NAs. Libby has drawn silly illustrations all over this screenshot, like yucky faces for dropping NAs and a smily face saying, "new filtering function?"
November 7, 2025 at 11:16 PM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
Custom #Positron title thingy of "file - project - branch" is now miiiiine!!
A screenshot of the center top of Positron showing a custom title: the file name, the project name, and the git branch
November 7, 2025 at 6:10 AM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
YAAAAS
November 7, 2025 at 4:39 AM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
You know how in #RStudio, it puts your branch name at the top? Like "project_name - branch - RStudio" (shown here)

I want that in #Positron 🤔 and I haven't found a popular extension for it. (I think there is one that works in VSCode, but not in Positron!)

Any ideas, #rstats #databs crew?
Screenshot showing Positron and RStudio open side by side on the same R project. The Positron window is on the left with a dark-themed interface, file explorer, and source control pane visible. The RStudio window on the right uses a dark theme, displaying the same project files and a script open in the editor. Both editors show identical project content, highlighting the differences in interface design between Positron and RStudio.
November 7, 2025 at 4:26 AM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
I got some questions about how I use my chess timer, and a video is just easier, so here you go!

Also, it's been nice to see the overlap between my #ADHD crowd and my #databs crowd. I keep using the #ADHData hashtag to include both, and I hope others will use it, too!
November 6, 2025 at 4:08 PM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
She thock 😌
November 6, 2025 at 1:52 PM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
My #ADHD brain doesn't feel time, so I capture it with a chess clock.

Player 1 on the left is "off the clock" & Player 2 on the right is "on the clock" - clearly my cat stickers are resting/playing vs business mode 🥹

Caveat: this only helps if I actually remember to press the buttons 😭 #ADHData
A hand holds a plastic chess timer with a wood grain pattern. There are cat stickers on it. The left side read 2 hours and 43 minutes while the right side reads 7 hours 21 minutes. A desk and laptop are behind the chess timer.
November 6, 2025 at 3:27 AM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
I also shared how the "when" clause of keybindings works, like in my custom keybinding here (enters a new line and a hash symbol) that is only for R and only for use in the Editor pane:
[ { "key": "shift+enter", "command": "editor.action.insertSnippet", "when": "editorLangId == r && editorTextFocus", "args": { "snippet": "\n# " } } ]
November 5, 2025 at 8:13 PM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
I had SO MUCH FUN making the data science trivia game for positconf Virtual Day this yr, & all I've wanted since then is to do it again! But it was a big lift to make it happen. What if I did daily trivia instead? I could do it as a poll on the data science community discord! #databs #python #rstats
Screenshot from the Posit::conf(2025) virtual event “Data Science Trivia Game.” Libby Heeren appears in the top-right corner, laughing as she hosts. The quiz question on screen reads: “This line of code will only run in one of these languages – which is it?” The code shown is {x: x**2 for x in [1,2,3,4,5]}, and the answer options are Julia, R, and Python. The Slido quiz interface shows it’s “Live quiz (1/42)” with 4 seconds left on the timer, and a colorful confetti-style emoji on the left is just below text that reads, “Join at slido.com.”
November 4, 2025 at 2:55 PM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
This summer, I sat down with my friend Saumita & give her an intro to ggplot2. She's a capable pythonista, so I skipped the fluff & just showed what plotting with #ggplot2 in #rstats can look like.

If you're in a similarly Just Curious re: ggplot2, lemme know!

#databs #python #matplotlib
Filled density plot comparing bill length distributions of Adelie penguins from three islands: Torgersen (blue), Biscoe (yellow), and Dream (pink). The x-axis shows bill length in millimeters, ranging from 32 to 44 mm, and the y-axis shows density. The overlapping curves indicate that Torgersen penguins have generally longer bills, while Dream and Biscoe penguins have slightly shorter and more varied bill lengths. The title reads “Adelie Penguins from Different Islands,” with a subtitle asking, “Do they have different bill lengths?” The ggplot2 plot utilizes the geomtextpath package to insert the island names floating above the density lines in the shape of the lines.
November 4, 2025 at 1:40 AM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
Happy Halloween!! I do a complex pumpkin every year, but my energy levels were so low this time, I went as simple as possible, and I freaking love my happy pumpkin bud 🥹🥹🥹

I definitely contemplated an #rstats pumpkin, but my brain is a fried egg today. I used pumpkinstenciler.com to build my own!
Two carved jack-o-lanterns, in the dark, illuminated from within. The one on the left has a zombie alien face from the movie They're Alive. The one on the right has a cute, classic face with large, wide-set eyes, a triangular nose, and a smiling mouth with small, rounded teeth.
November 1, 2025 at 4:28 AM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
Dude, have you pulled up the keybindings and just searched a few? THERE ARE SO MANY. Why?! How do they not all overlap?! These are all the shift+enter commands, with my custom key binding highlighted. I decided I didn't mind it overlapping most stuff, and hopefully my when clause is specific enough
A screenshot of the Positron keybindings settings window filtered for “shift+enter.” The window lists commands, their keybindings, conditions (“When”), and sources. Multiple entries show “Shift+Enter” as the keybinding for different actions such as Jupyter, Python, Quarto, and Terminal commands. One row titled “Snippets: Insert Snippet” is highlighted with a red rectangle. Its condition specifies editorTextFocus && editorLangId == 'r', and its source is labeled User, indicating a custom user-defined keybinding.
November 1, 2025 at 3:57 AM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
The solution, using scales = "free_y", space = "free" inside facet_grid, incorporated into my reprex, in case anyone cares 😆
A screenshot showing R code and the resulting ggplot2 output. The code uses geom_boxplot() with facet_grid(island ~ ., scales = "free_y", space = "free") on the penguins dataset. The plot has body mass on the x-axis and species on the y-axis, faceted by island. Each island panel only shows the species that occur there: Biscoe shows Gentoo and Adelie, Dream shows Chinstrap and Adelie, and Torgersen shows only Adelie. This avoids blank rows for missing species.
October 25, 2025 at 9:01 PM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
When you type out your mental code block and then IMMEDIATELY remember how to fix your own problem, because talking/typing things out and creating a reprex works. #databs #rstats #ggplot2
A Discord screen capture showing Libby (me) discussing how to plot penguin body mass by species and island using ggplot2 in R. The code snippet uses facet_wrap(island ~ ., ncol = 1) and displays a boxplot with islands as facets and species on the y-axis. The plot has three panels: Biscoe, Dream, and Torgersen. Red rectangles highlight blank rows for species that don’t appear on those islands, such as Chinstrap under Biscoe. Below the plot, the user realizes the fix: “WAIT OMG I REMEMBERED 😂 scales = 'free_y' inside facet_wrap!!”
October 25, 2025 at 8:58 PM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
It's past midnight but you're a family of night owls and there's WEATHER happening, so the family group chat is wide awake.
Weather radar of San Antonio showing a strong thunderstorm system. The map displays heavy rain bands in green and yellow, with intense storm cells in orange and red. Numerous lightning bolt icons indicate frequent lightning across the storm. A large brown and red polygon highlights active severe weather warnings in the San Antonio area. The current temperature is 75°F, with an 80% chance of rain, and the forecast shows storms today followed by clear skies on Sunday and Monday.
October 25, 2025 at 5:06 AM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
TOMORROW! Join me on the #DSHangout with @tanho.ca to chat all about... whatever you want! Great topics: R in Production, sports analytics, open source dev work, and pumpkin carving 🎃 ❤️

I plan on asking about my fave: working out loud!

You can go to pos.it/dsh to register! #databs #rstats #python
October 22, 2025 at 6:26 PM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
So classy 😤
A round, clipless pen with a small hair clip attached to stop it from rolling away
October 22, 2025 at 4:08 AM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
Fun Libby fact: I LOVE PENS & PENCILS & PAPER! Just refilling my favorite ink pen in about 1 minute with almost no mess ✨✨✨ This is the Tom's Studio Lumos in the Lilac dual-tip body with a 0.3 writing nib. Doing this almost one-handed to film it was not ideal, usually it's faster 😂
October 22, 2025 at 1:56 AM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
I don't really have favorites (I contain multitudes), and until i saw @christophmolnar.bsky.social ask this funny question, I don't think I'd realized how enamored I am of SVMs. They're just so beautiful, especially radial SVM.

Also on my list of loves: KNN!

#databs #rstats
A screenshot of Christoph Molnar's post on Instagram that says, "You shouldn't have a favorite machine learning algorithm. It's against the fundamental principles of machine learning and might prevent you from thriving in the field. Anyway, my favorite is the random forest. What's yours?"
October 17, 2025 at 10:57 PM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
Here's a screen grab of the docs (I can't link to the section in the pdf, which stinks) It says, median is the time at which the Kaplan–Meier survival function S^(t) first drops to 0.5, like by this time, 50% of pop is est to have experienced the event. So I asked what your KM curve looked like :)
Screenshot of the survival package's documentation, showing the chapter 2 section labeled "Mean and Median"
October 14, 2025 at 2:28 PM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
All the community-focused stuff is pretty spot-on, but it makes it look like my life is work. At least it depicted a couple eating together, so not ALL work, but goodness the geometrically improbably copy of Intro te gapiot2: no Pythui(n?)sted is bizarre 😂 I guess it knows I regularly teach ggplot2
An AI generated book that says, Intro te gapiot2: no Pythui(n?)sted
October 13, 2025 at 12:11 AM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
I don't do trends, & I VERY RARELY use AI to generate images, bc AI images make me feel queasy & I'm an illustrator myself, so 👀. BUT. I got curious w/ this trend of asking GPT what my life looks like. I'm worried I've given it too much context about me 😩 Is my life all @posit.co, #databs, #rstats ?
The result of Libby Heeren prompting ChatGPT with, "Based on what you know of me, draw a picture of what my life currently looks like." It's a colorful digital illustration of a blonde woman wearing a “Data Science Hangout” shirt, sitting at a desk with a laptop and multiple monitors showing charts, graphs, and the words “shiny” and “Connect.” Around her are symbolic elements: speech bubbles and people representing community, icons for R, Python, and SQL, a Posit logo, a calendar marked “part-time,” which is probably linked to previously working part time, a microphone and camera for podcasting and content creation, and a bookshelf with data science books including “Intro to ggplot2.” In the upper right, a woman and man share dinner at a table, hopefully symbolizing a semblance of personal life balance.
October 13, 2025 at 12:06 AM
libbyheeren.bsky.social
🍰 Happy 15th anniversary to us 🥂

AND THEN I got nerdsniped so good & ended up in LaTeX-land bc my buddy was trying to get a header image on each page of a #quarto PDF 😂

Anyway, here's how I did it. #LaTeX isn't my thing! Don't judge. Should this be a blog or is it boring? Helpful? #rstats #databs
Smiling couple sitting at a restaurant table, leaning toward the camera. Two water glasses and a cocktail with a lime garnish sit on the white tablecloth. Screenshot of a Quarto document showing YAML front matter. The title is set to ‘Example Doc First Page’. Under format → pdf, the line ‘include-in-header: header.tex’ is highlighted with a green box and arrow pointing to green text that says ‘Put this in your yaml’. Screenshot of a header.tex file open in a text editor. The LaTeX code loads geometry, graphicx, and tikzpagenodes packages, then uses an AddToHook command to apply a background image as a header on every page. Inside a tikzpicture environment, a node is anchored at the top-left of the page, with zero padding, including the image ‘images/FlowerHeader.png’ at full page width. The full code is as follows: % This adds a centered image to the top of each page, bleeding to the edges. % Need a much larger headheight (120pt) to push the text down on this one, % but your image may be shorter than mine! \usepackage[includehead,top=0pt,headsep=0pt,headheight=120pt]{geometry} \usepackage{graphicx} \usepackage{tikzpagenodes} % Loop to apply the background image (the header) to every page of the doc \AddToHook{shipout/background}{% \begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay] \node[ anchor=north west, inner sep=0pt, % remove suble padding around the header image outer sep=0pt ] at (current page.north west) {\includegraphics[width=\paperwidth]{images/FlowerHeader.png}}; \end{tikzpicture}% } Screenshot of the RStudio PDF preview pane showing a rendered Quarto document. The first page displays a floral header image with overlaid text ‘THIS IS A HEADER’, followed by the title ‘Example Doc First Page’ and Quarto sample content with text, code, and output. The top of the second page is also visible, showing the repeated floral header with the same overlaid text.
October 11, 2025 at 4:52 AM