Hey there! In this post, we discuss a variety of insightful topics: we explore how lowercase letters can save data, share four software engineering habits that can boost productivity, and even dive into the curious correlation between Bigfoot sightings and black bear populations. If you’re looking to maximize your happiness or ascend in your career, you’re in for a treat. We also spotlight the crisis of a massive recall of breathing machines. Don’t miss it!

• The Death Of Pitchfork | Lefsetz Letter: This is not a harbinger of what’s to come, this is the last gasp of a dead paradigm.
• The Design Sprint: The sprint is a 5-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing with customers. Learn to run your own sprints, and read about our book on sprints.
• 4 simple software engineering habits that transformed my productivity: Some people are amazed at my knowledge of keyboard shortcuts — A breakdown of 4 simple software engineering and coding habits that improved my productivity. These include keyboard shortcuts, learning to say no, reaching flow state faster, and keeping a big book of commands handy.
• How Patients and Doctors Are Navigating the Fallout of the Massive Recall of Philips Breathing Machines: ProPublica journalist and filmmaker Liz Moughon on making a documentary that captures the impossible choices facing sleep apnea patients who relied on the dangerous Philips DreamStation breathing machines.
• Ideas That Created the Future: Classic Papers of Computer Science [book]: #promo Classic papers by thinkers ranging from from Aristotle and Leibniz to Norbert Wiener and Gordon Moore that chart the evolution of computer science.
• why lowercase letters save data: lowercase letters compress better
• This Is How To Spend Your Money To Maximize Happiness: To a degree, money can help maximize happiness. But we need to spend it the right way. Here’s what science recommends…
• Why, how much, and when you should be taking time off as an engineer: Without feeling guilty about it
• 9 key lessons learned on my path from Engineer to VP: Going from engineer to VP, I see some people grow very fast and some grow slowly.
• Study finds bigfoot sightings correlate with black bear populations | arstechnica: The results suggest that there’s a strong correlation between sightings and the local black bear population—for every 1,000 bears, the frequency of bigfoot sightings goes up by about 4 percent.
• The slippery truth about staying warm on a frigid NFL field: It is a common, not to mention comical, sight in locker rooms around the league: dozens of bear-armed — and often bare-armed — players, lining up to lube up every swath of exposed skin before hitting a frigid field. “[Team trainers] will have regular-sized Vaselines, and they’ll grab a big tongue depressor stick or whatever, lather that on with latex gloves, take a group of guys and rub their arms down,” Ryan said. “Or guys will just do it themselves.” Regardless, depending on the severity of the weather, Ryan added, “You’ve definitely got to reapply [at halftime].”
• Tara VanDerveer sets record for most wins in NCAA hoops history: VanDerveer shared her rules for leading a winning team: “Hire right. As my dad said, ‘You can’t win the Kentucky Derby on a donkey.’ And not just players but staff. Be sure they complement you more than compliment you.” Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer passed Mike Krzyzewski with her 1,203rd career victory on Sunday, becoming the winningest coach in NCAA basketball history.