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Comment by inflagranti | Hacker News Reader

I so hate this attitude about people acting in good faith doing 'rookie mistakes'. I'm just answering to this post, but it's by far not the only one along those lines.

Why does everything have to be done on explicit contract basis? How can an altruistic act of one party (helping out after leaving the company for free) be turned against them!? Where will this end!? Will I have to get in writing that this was in no way meant as a bribe every if I ever pay a round of beer for a couple coworkers?

There should be protection in place that if people act in good faith they cannot easily be sued like this. And definitely this kind of victim blaming is not helping going in such direction.

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I would say it's because history teaches us that goodwill only gets you to a certain point.

When you're acting on good faith, asking for a formal contract should be seen as a totally normal request. If the other party is also acting on good faith.

This is basically a win/win situation. If they complain about such a simple request, they might be hiding something. And if they do agree to simply formalize the agreement, you're protected.

I've been burned by "good faith" before, and it changes you. By pointing out "rookie mistakes" maybe someone will read this and start taking these things a little bit more serious.

Of course on an ideal world, we'd be protected and shouldn't have to worry about it. But that's utopia for me

Agreed, but it's still frustrating that we live in a world like this. Though something important to point out: This ability to just sue people or smaller companies to bankruptcy is something very American, that's not as easily possible in many European countries. So it's not like utopia that just wouldn't work!

It's business. This is how business works; altruism left town a long time ago. If you haven't read a million other stories like this, what business do you have running a business? I'm sure it's gut-wrenching, but if you want to play the game then learn the rules.

I get it, definitely frustrating. But we know the world - especially the business world - is not a kind place and that we have to protect ourselves or we end up in these situations.

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