Robert, indeed I’m grateful for the answers people have given. Perhaps I asked the wrong question to begin with. I know better for next time to be more specific. Thanks.
Manipulating csv has become way easier than it was.
You have:
1. Spreadsheets where you can import this data and manipulate it visually
2. CLI tools made especially to work on csv, with fancy colors, shortcuts, examples
3. Visual tools for data analysis like google data studio, power bi etc. Where you basically dragon drop the data and pick charts
4. RStudio where you can load your data using file->open and then copy some simple commands to work on it
5. No-code tools where you can copy paste the data and add functionality by clicking through tutorials
6. All kinds of online notebooks where you don't have to install pandas...
swear to god if one more person talks about the specifics of this illustrative case, and then goes on to explain how they are so silly and should have used tool "xyz" my head is going to explode
You don't need to use any tool, it's a general purpose programming language, so "making a script to analyze csv" requires you to learn the basics of programming and what csv is.
It's not unnecessarily complex, but expecting people to handhold and teach you programming for free when you haven't shown any commitment to learning is silly. If you were to do this, you will essentially be writing programs for clueless people for free and they just move on(they may not learn anything).
If you want to learn programming join a bootcamp or a hacker group or get a formal education(where people will be paid for this).
Python does not know what a CSV file is. It doesn't know what a JPEG is. If you want to work with these things you have to tell Python what they are. If you want to use a library to do that you need to know how to install a library such that Python knows what it is and where it is.
You can play around in Photoshop because and get decent results because it already knows what a JPEG is. All of the tools are built around working with 2D images and share a set of abstractions. You might do a shitty job but you're not likely to break your image or be unable to do anything.
Python is not "Photoshop for CSV files". It's not Photoshop for anything. So you must learn some basics to use it an Aella decided learning was stupid and she could just copy and paste her way through the process.
A rational person confronts by terms they didn't understand in some instructions would take a step back and realize maybe they were missing some fundamentals.
This thread for me looks like a narcissistic attention seeking rather than real process.
She could simply start learning on datacamp - i went back to it after many years and it's perfect. Low level of entry, "box where you write python code and it runs", you don't have to install pandas, but course will teach you to do it if you want.
She began this thread from saying that she started a few courses... Hard to believe. Or she didn't wanted to pay for it to get them at a professional (in educational terms) level.
She wants to analyze her data - cool, but seriously, it's like any ignorant person would say that they want to do anything that requires some expertise... I want to build a car, why it's so difficult?!?! Twitter help!
Read the rest of this persons twitter, or their website for that matter.
No I don’t think there is anything enlightening whatsoever about their experience “trying” to learn to program. They spent 10 minutes installing the interpreter, and then got upset for their social medial followers because they weren’t immediately able to write software to do something useful with their CSV.
I cannot think of any other discipline where “I bought a woodworking shop and then couldn’t immediately make cabinets 10 minutes after walking inside” would be considered insightful towards anything other than the person writing it.
There are SO many people who spend their time trying to help others program. Literally thousands of them. “Aella” could have spent an hour watching any of their videos or reading any of their tutorials instead of this.
I think the problem here is that there's so many tutorials, articles etc telling people that if they want to do data analysis then the best way is to use Python without making it clear that this advice is predicated on you already having a programming education. If you start with a CSV file and want to do some analysis, without knowing programming, then you need to using a spreadsheet app, but this context isn't being reliably given to people. Instead they absorb a background assumption that "real" data analysis is based on programming and immediately drown when they try it.
It's no different in woodworking. I'm constantly turned off when I try to start by the fact that basically every easy-to-find woodworking tutorial assumes you have 3-4 different power saws already ready to go in your garage. It's hard to find content that gets you started with basic tools on small, inexpensive projects.
Experts in any field are usually terrible teachers because they don't understand anymore what it means to be a beginner.
(As an aside, I'd love suggestions for woodworking content that does start small.)
Would be very easy to make with basic hand tools. In fact, what might be fun is to just look at the picture of that, and try to reverse engineer the parts for it. (I teach woodworking classes, and this is actually an exercise I make the students do in one of the classes).
This is a handheld saw, but it's a very nice one, and could absolutely be used to make many, many things out of wood. You can use it for almost anything, and people do.
exactly. this post is a kind of: let's make new google! i know how to do it better (while ignoring 1000 other factors outside of my bubble).
Even if Dunning-Kruger effect is debunked, this case shows that people work this way.
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