• It’s sort of obvious, but worth saying anyway: doing your statistics on a computer is faster, easier
and more powerful than doing statistics by hand. Computers excel at mindless repetitive tasks, and
a lot of statistical calculations are both mindless and repetitive. For most people, the only reason
to ever do statistical calculations with pencil and paper is for learning purposes. In my class I do
occasionally suggest doing some calculations that way, but the only real value to it is pedagogical.
It does help you to get a “feel” for statistics to do some calculations yourself, so it’s worth doing it
once. But only once!
• Doing statistics in a spreadsheet (e.g., Microsoft Excel) is generally a bad idea in the long run.
Although many people are likely feel more familiar with them, spreadsheets are very limited in
terms of what analyses they allow you do. If you get into the habit of trying to do your real life
data analysis using spreadsheets, then you’ve dug yourself into a very deep hole.
• Avoiding proprietary software is a very good idea. There are a lot of commercial packages out there
that you can buy, some of which I like and some of which I don’t. They’re usually very glossy in
their appearance, and generally very powerful (much more powerful than spreadsheets). However,
they’re also very expensive: usually, the company sells “student versions” (crippled versions of the
real thing) very cheaply; they sell full powered “educational versions” at a price that makes me
wince; and they sell commercial licences with a staggeringly high price tag. The business model here
is to suck you in during your student days, and then leave you dependent on their tools when you
go out into the real world. It’s hard to blame them for trying, but personally I’m not in favour of
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