Scott Alexander

I know for a fact a bunch of friends I have who also left the company just signed the paperwork on the last day without actually reading all of it.

And so I think some people just didn't even know.

It said something at the top about if you don't sign this, you lose your equity.

But then on a couple pages later, it was like, and you have to agree not to criticize the company.

So I think some people just signed it and moved on.

And then of the people who knew about it,

well, I can't speak for anyone else, but like, A, it's like, I don't know the law.

Is this actually not standard practice?

Maybe it is standard practice, right?

Like, from what I've heard now,

there are non-disparagement agreements in various tech industry, like, companies and stuff.

Like, it's not crazy to have a non-disparagement agreement upon leaving.

It's more normal to tie that agreement to some sort of, like, positive compensation.

Where, like, you get some bonus if you agree.

But, whereas what OpenID did was unusual because it was, like, yanking your equity if you don't.

But, like, non-disparagement agreements are actually somewhat common.

And, like, so, basically, in my position of ignorance, I wasn't, like, confident that I was on this, like,

Like, I didn't actually expect that, like, all the journalists would take my side and all the employees.

Like, I think what I expected was that, like, there'd be, like, a little news story at some point and, like, a bunch of AI safety people would be like, ah, you know, open AI is evil.

And, like, good for you, Daniel, for standing up to them.