In May 2021, Paul Done released his book "Practical MongoDB Aggregations" for free, aiming to help developers and data professionals understand and optimize MongoDB’s aggregation framework, which he finds uniquely powerful for data processing. The book was a personal project born out of pandemic boredom and seeks to fill a gap in existing resources by providing an opinionated and practical guide to building effective aggregation pipelines. Meanwhile, MongoDB employees shared their experiences balancing work and family life during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the company's supportive parental leave policies and flexible working arrangements. In a separate announcement, MongoDB CEO Dev Ittycheria revealed his retirement plan by 2025, with Chirantan “CJ” Desai set to succeed him, citing CJ's extensive experience in scaling companies as key to leading MongoDB through its next growth phase. Dev emphasized the strategic timing of this leadership change to propel MongoDB forward amidst the rising importance of AI and data-intensive applications.