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Friendly reminder: Non-compete agreements are bad and should be abolished everywhere.

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· Nov 19, 2020

The ability for Apple to create M1, for Tesla to create Model S, for Google to innovate on Google Workspace are all predicated on the fact that non-competes are not enforceable in California as each team is led by a previous leader at a top competitor (Intel, Mazda, Microsoft)

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Jesse Powell

@jespow

Replying to

@adamnash

I think the bar has to be pretty high for the government to ban voluntary transactions. What is it about non-competes that’s so terrible that nobody could possibly be paid enough to make up for the opportunity cost?

6:06 AM · Nov 20, 2020Twitter for iPhone

Replying to

Interesting question. Certainly empirical evidence here is that labor gets almost nothing for non-competes. Is that because they have little value? Or is it because of some flaw in the transaction due to power imbalance? Forgive me, but (1/3)...

Adam Nash

@adamnash

Nov 20, 2020

... I prefer to look at it from a games theory perspective. Some 1:1 transactions are heavily influenced by the competitive pressures of others. Compensation clearly is, as are the social contracts (unwritten) around labor commitment. (2/3)...

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