Patrick Burns ，他是不見經傳的人。但他在 R 的社群很有名。他曾寫了兩份 Documentation ((免費的！)) ，一份叫 S Poetry ，另一份叫 R Inferno ，是介紹 S（及 R ）作 Programming Language 時的問題及解決方法。
他最近在 R-Help 郵遞論壇問各位 R 用戶在初學階段最令人不安的情況，寫成了他的新作 Some Hints for the R Beginner 。它說在 R 見到 Error ，其實不是大問題，世界不會因此而崩壞，反而這些錯誤有助用家變得有性格（ Hint: the universe doesn't collapse into a singularity just because of an error in R. Actually, it builds character ）。他也指出，故意犯錯（ Make mistakes on purpose ），其實是一種實驗。因為：
A slang term that programmers use for themselves is "hacker". This does not mean that they envision themselves breaking into corporate computers. It means they envision themselves trying a lot of wrong approaches until they find one that works and is suitably elegant.
You can do worse than imitating people who are the best in the world at what they do.