Gifts for Statistical Programmers

Picking a gift for a statistical programmer

Statistical programmers spend their days turning messy trial and survey data into clean, validated outputs, often under deadlines that come with a regulatory reason behind them. They know SAS or R inside out, they've argued about a variable derivation until someone finally wrote it down, and they've probably spent a Friday night chasing a single mismatched record. A gift that acknowledges that work lands well. A tee or hoodie with their title says the job is worth naming, and it's the kind of thing they'll wear on a weekend without it looking like office wear. The mug is for the long validation sessions, when coffee is the only thing keeping the log file readable. Add a second line with their company's team, their study name or the year they started, and the design becomes specific to them. If you're buying for a whole programming group, the Team Shop lets you choose one design and print each person's name on their own shirt, so the team photo at the next conference looks like a team.