Compost-Fueled Cars: Wouldn't That Be Great? - Onion Talks - Ep. 1

Hi HN, FuturePrize is a crowdfunding site for incentivized prize competitions – kind of like if you mixed Kickstarter with the X-Prize. This isn’t a minimum viable product (we had a couple of alternate takes on the site that we ended up scrapping), but it’s definitely a more basic version of what we have in mind. It’s still a little rough around the edges, but we would greatly appreciate any feedback HN might have. We’ve gone ahead and seeded the site with half a dozen prizes of varying degrees of crazy, that we hope illustrate the range of projects you might see on FuturePrize – from absurdly ambitious, literal moonshots like the Icy Moon FuturePrize, to something pretty basic like “A Software Fix for Glowing Pet Eyes in Photos” that just represents an unmet consumer need. We realize this site could be a bit controversial on HN, where the “Idea vs Execution” debate happens frequently, and usually leans pretty heavily towards “Execution” being everything. That’s mostly true, but it’s our view that ideas can definitely be very important. People seem to know this instinctively when they hang on to them like Gollum from Lord of the Rings, even if deep down they know that they may never get the chance to execute on them. It’s our belief that providing a platform that allows the free exchange and funding of ambitious or novel ideas - where people can get a bit of recognition for their idea, and maybe even choose to keep a very small portion of the funds raised - could be a very be

tl;dr. Do not sign the document. Beyond this case, it could also affect your future employability. VCs fund good teams, not ideas, which are cheap. If your partner doesn't realize that, she also has a hard lesson in front of her. Another great HN post: [link] +++++++ IANAL.* This is mostly based on my personal experience with NDAs, employment docs, and patent applications. NDA may also go by the name of a "confidentiality agreement" or a "proprietary information" document. You should also refuse to a non-compete agreement that says you can't pursue a related business or anything barring you from recruiting someone from this business. She may also ask you to sign a "work for hire" agreement that assigns your work product to her, which would also give away your ownership claim. Obviously, this work-for-hire contract is typically signed when you're getting paid as an employee or contractor. More to beware: You may also be presented with documents assigning away all "inventions". Be especially wary of this, as you may be signing away your idea and your right to pursue something even vaguely related later. You may also be giving her what she needs to file a patent. As others have suggested, company uses of NDAs are all over the place. Many companies do require them. Many don't. Strictness is all over the place, as is validity by state. For example, non-competes are almost unenforceable in California. Some companies who ask you to sign such an agreement will offer to compensate for

Have you ever met someone who was a hobbyist or amateur engineer at best, but always has grand ideas about how things should work? But has no idea of the type of investment or execution it would take to pull off. That is what I think of whenever I hear management strategies like these. It is like the management version of the compost fueled cars guy: [this video] Deciding that you only want the best people is easy. Is there really a business out there who decides they want terrible staff? Determining who those people are is extremely difficult. Even if you are successful in identifying the best people, can you keep them? Whenever I find exceptional people, it takes more than 'not firing' them to keep them. More realistically. Policies like these aren't designed with any idea of identifying or retaining talent. Instead they are usually a means to affect work culture. Like grading on a curve. It makes everyone work harder.