As an IP company, NDAs can be frightening. Asking us to sign one before we are really getting into the nitty-gritty of a partnership will likely grind things down. I will ask you to just not share anything with us that is confidential. I think NDAs have just become automatic in the Valley. However, when people stop to consider them and the pitfalls, they realize they can be superfluous in many instances.

It is really funny to see him write this.. because last time I checked, every single time I go to visit Google, the check-in / name-tag registration process involves an automatic NDA. Even when I am just going to have lunch with a friend. I still have to sign this NDA.

So why doesn’t Google take its own advice, and just not share anything with me that is confidential while I am visiting the campus? Why make me sign a superfluous NDA? If Google doesn’t want to sign NDA’s, they should extend the same courtesy to the rest of us.