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Comment by michaelbuckbee | Hacker News Reader

My perception may be shaped by past experiences at various LargeCo's, but when I hear the phrase:

"I'm leaving to work on my own thing, but don't have an idea yet."

My mind translates that into:

"I have an extremely clear idea of what I want to do, I also am extremely aware that any ideas that could possibly be thought of on company time may be claimed as the intellectual property of my employer."

This may or may not be the case of Gabor and Google as I can't speak to their intellectual property arrangements, but there is nothing quite like a very public statement that you are intellectual property unencumbered to start things off.

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That would always be the safe response. There isn't a whole lot to be gained for the employee by telling the company why they are leaving. Some folks like to 'get off their chest' all their grievances in an exit interview but even that isn't advisable. The fact that you're leaving those 'losers' behind is great now, but later you might need to work with them again and well, lets just say that debt accumulates.

On that note, do yourself a favor, write the resignation letter (on your own computer, turn the internet off) that you really want to write. Add all your gripes, hatreds, and problems with the place. Tell the true story of your leaving and why your soul was at risk if you stayed any longer.

now print it out and delete the electronic copy

Now you can turn back on the internet (since you now don't have to worry about accidentally sending something) and write a one paragraph resignation saying what your last day is and how you love everyone. Print and hand that in.

Every time in the future when you wonder why you left, read the print out of your rant.

I used my diary (pure pen) but similar principle.

Never burn the boats as you might need them!

While I've never given the boat-burning scorched-earth exit interview, I have given professional-yet-candid opinions on the occasion that I cared enough to do so and had someone who cared enough to listen.

Having done this myself recently, I'd say it's more like:

"I have an extremely clear idea of what I really want to do, but I haven't even built a prototype yet, so what I'm working on 2 weeks from now might well be one of the dozen other completely different ideas I've got. And I don't really want to be forever remembered as The Guy Who Left To Start Dumb Project XYZ."

There's value to oneself in declaring publicly that you are mentally unencumbered.

But there's negative value in telling people what you're really up to. I first heard it from Derek Sivers who said that Repeated psychology tests have proven that telling someone your goal makes it less likely to happen [1]. And it actually makes sense...

So it might be better to engage in some little public self-embarassment than go around telling what you're up to...

[1] http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

interesting, thanks. Hemingway said the same about writing: he'd work until he knew where he would pick up the next day. Then he could stop. In between, he'd not want to talk about what he'd worked on or planned to next sessions as that would get in the way of actually doing it.

I've had success writing code this way. If there's a wall, talking about it helps; if there's a flow, shutting up and letting your subconscious at it helps more.

I couldn't have phrased this better. Thanks ken!

That is not the case. I have a couple of spaces I'm interested in, and will start prototyping in the next few weeks. But I don't have a concrete and fixed idea.

This blog post in not a CYA tactic but was triggered by the comment I read on Hacker News, and my belief that leaving to do one specific idea is in most cases the wrong way to do it.

Not always the case. Some of us simply need a break to clear our heads. I have absolutely no idea what I'll do next, and I like it that way. I know it will come to me in time.

> be claimed as the intellectual property of my employer

I've never heard of this actually happening. Does it?

Definitely - here's an example: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/02/03/21/0139244/beware...

So it sort of happened once 10 years ago and it involved actual that was probably worked on during the work day and on the company's equipment. Whereas here we've been referring simply to possibly having and idea ready to work in soon after deserting the company. I'm not sold.

That is theft, pure and simple, same as if you incur a billion dollar thought on your own and fail to immediately declare it to the IRS and pay proper taxes on it. Not.

(This is satire. Obviously you don't owe taxes just by having a valuable thought, and by extension my point was that obviously a thought alone can't actually belong to an employer if you haven't even acted on it. Of course an employer can still bully you to hand over what you produce outside the company, but that's simply not right, whatever your contract might say. No one is a slave or can sign a meaningful contract to that effect, in my personal opinion. Judges may differ.)

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