Signing NDAs

If one is around technology for any length of time, there is at some point going to come a request to sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement).  An NDA in it’s most basic form simply means that you agree not to talk about the originating party’s ideas with anyone else or use those ideas yourself.

It has become harder and harder to convince me that signing an NDA makes sense to do.  If there is an idea worth executing on, there is a really good chance that someone else is working on it as well.  The success or failure will not be with the idea but with the execution of the idea and the people involved.

Obviously this is not true of all fields.  If I have the formula for the next great drug to cure cancer, clearly that is an idea worth protecting in all forms.  This is also true of patents.

My point of view is this:  All I have is my reputation when it’s said and done.  I could not survive a theft of someone else’s idea professionally or personally.  For some, that is good enough to continue the dialog.  For others, it’s not.

What do you think?  Does signing NDAs have any real meaning anymore?