

Ask HN: What's everyone's obsession with NDA's? - kylelibra

What's everyone's obsession with NDA's? As a freelance developer I am constantly running into people who absolutely insist that I must sign an NDA before we can either discuss their project.<p>My questions:<p>-Do you all run into this a lot?<p>-What do you say?<p>-Do you flat out refuse to sign and refuse to back down like me?<p>I think NDA's are arbitrary and unnecessary and I'm of the mind that if the person is so caught up on this they probably aren't worth working with.
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paulsutter
I used to get nervous about NDAs. My programmer's mind was always coming up
with arcane problem cases. In practice NDAs are treated pretty simply - when
you're under NDA with someone you dont talk about their stuff.

My suggestion: find/develop a lightweight NDA that you _are_ willing to sign,
rather than fighting a battle all the time. NDA's can range from impossibly
restrictive to nearly inert with a few small wording changes. If someone
insists on a weirdly restrictive NDA, they're probably a dick to work with
anyway.

Nobody goes back to look up the wording in the NDA. They just store a single
bit in their mind, "under NDA". And rightly or wrongly, that bit is pretty
important to many people.

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kylelibra
That's a good idea for a compromise in this situation. Do you have a sample
NDA that you could share?

~~~
paulsutter
If you like I can talk you through the major items that I look at when
reviewing an NDA. My email address is in my profile.

