Why NDAs are mostly a joke

We have a simple business policy - we do not sign NDAs.

I am not aware of any situation where that has lost us work - you can usually point to sufficient flaws in any given NDA to show that it is invalid in practice or that you as (say) director (is that vice president in the USA?) of a business you would be in breach of trust to your own company should you sign it.

Quoting from:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=462448

I did an MBO 6 years ago and it was striking. All the people who were genuinely helpful did business on a handshake. All those who were ultimately a waste of time, space and occasionally oxygen, insisted on having everything in writing. It was a 100% correlation, and a real eye-opener.

I've often viewed NDA's much like patents, they don't offer you any real protection. They only offer mild discouragement to someone attempting to capitalize on something you created or invented. An NDA (much like a patent) basically just gives you a strong edge should you choose to pursue something legally, YOU have to determine still if that battle is worth your time and money.

The above being said, it is still a good idea, IMO, to use NDA's (they're basically free) and patents when/where appropriate.

The 90's comic strip "The VC" on NDA's: http://www.thevc.com/strips/strip05.html