Thoughts about NDAs
Any developer who does contract work has come across NDAs, Non-Disclosure Agreements. When a company wants to hire you to build something for them, they have you sign an NDA before they tell you about the project. This supposedly protects them in case you steal their ideas or reveal them to the public.
I hate them. In the 12 years I’ve been doing this sort of thing, I’ve signed hundreds of NDAs. Not once did anyone have a unique idea. Not once. To be fair, sometimes they tell me something that they want to keep secret, like a Web site they are going to launch.
But even that second situation doesn’t usually warrant the NDA. Just tell me “BTW, its a secret” and lets get down to it. I probably don’t want to do the project anyway.
I’m beginning to think that I should start charging for it. $100 to read and sign an NDA. Make it worth my time.