Mongoose use of .select() method

the docs say you can achieve this like so:

Mongoose v4.0

// Retrieving only certain fields

Model.find({}, 'first last', function (err, docs) {

});

old outdated API

// Retrieving only certain fields

Model.find({}, ['first', 'last'], function (err, docs) {
  // docs is an array of partially-`init`d documents
  // defaults are still applied and will be "populated"
});

so you can do this without select().