Strong disagree re signing non-disclosure agreements (which I’ll abbreviate as NDAs). I think it’s totally reasonable to sign NDAs with organizations; they don’t restrict your ability to talk about things you learned other ways than through the ways covered by the NDA. And it’s totally standard to sign NDAs when working with organizations. I’ve signed OpenAI NDAs at least three times, I think—once when I worked there for a month, once when I went to an event they were running, once when I visited their office to give a talk.
I think non-disparagement agreements are way more problematic. At the very least, signing secret non-disparagement agreements should probably disqualify you from roles where your silence re an org might be interpreted as a positive sign.
This is a very reasonable criticism. I don’t know, I’ll think about it. Thanks.