When I think about R I find it difficult to stop making analogies between it and JavaScript. Both are dynamic, "script" languages with C-based syntax and with LISP-like nature that lurks underneath it. Both have functions as first class citizens. Both are inconsistent in different ways. Just to name a few that first come to my mind ... I think that these analogies reduced frustration that I had felt about R once when I "discovered" them and helped me to adopt and learn R.