I wanted to have a chat with founders about joining a very early-stage startup in the health tech space, and they sent me an NDA to sign with a clause that says that for trade secrets, "the obligations set forth herein shall survive indefinitely.". It seems out of whack to sign up for a lifelong obligation to have what might be a 60-minute convo. "Indefinitely" is a long time! OTOH, I know that broadly worded NDAs like that are likely to found to be invalid in a court of law. I tried to get them to change the clause to something more circumscribed but they abruptly dropped out instead.

WWYD? Have you signed an NDA even you thought it was BS because you wanted to avoid the confrontation? Do you think it's important to stand your ground about these things? Do you a litmus test you apply to decide whether to go through with contracts?