How can I help someone transition from Stata to Python?

So, Stata functions a bit differently as it's more of a statistical analysis package rather than a full programming language. They might not be familiar with abstract concepts and data structures like what we have in Python, which could make things a bit tricky at first. It could be helpful to see what areas they’re interested in, or even work on a project together. Plus, getting them set up with an IDE or Jupyter Notebooks could really boost their learning curve. Also, tools like pandas and matplotlib will be super useful for their analyses.

What do you even mean by 'academic experience' with programming languages? And what exactly are these 'big ones'?

Honestly, if they’re asking for help like this, I’d be a bit worried about how comfortable they truly are with programming. The best way to pick up a new language is to build something familiar to them. If they have experience in Java with REST APIs, approaching a similar project in Python may ease their transition. Otherwise, they might not be as proficient as they claim, since transitioning typically shouldn’t be daunting.

I've mostly avoided Stata since it’s pretty limited compared to other languages. It’s essentially a collection of statistical functions but lacking many programming basics. If your colleague is starting from Stata, they may as well be starting fresh like someone who only knows Excel. Still, they have stats knowledge which is a plus. Introduce them to pandas and numpy, and let them try Jupyter for visualizations; that should make things click for them.