The attitude that nobody's going to steal your idea might hold true for a certain audience, but having worked in environments where not only will people steal y

The attitude that nobody's going to steal your idea might hold true for a certain audience, but having worked in environments where not only will people steal your idea, but often relationships are formed for that very purpose, I would take that advice with a few grains of salt. As with everything, context is key -- if you're talking about building a new widget for platform_x, and you're in a conversation with your grandparents, you're probably in the clear (for a specific definition of grandparents). If you're having that same conversation with the world's most prolific exporter of widgets for platform x, it might be better to listen than to talk. In contracting environments, specifically in Federal government, the IT ecosystem is an adversarial one, all the work is bid upon, subsequently awarded to a Prime contractor who may or may not sub out some of the work to sub-contractors. It's not impossible for some of the subcontractors to have their wagons hitched to multiple ponies, on the assumption that they'll work with whomever wins. Idea sharing and NDAs are critical in this sort of environment as the novelty / uniqueness / effectiveness of your particular solution to the problem being bid upon is your key differentiator. Otherwise, you likely end up in a price race, where either the largest contractor or the most ill-adept at bidding will win.