The questioner wrote: "But how are you supposed to do that with a full time gig that has you technically under an inventions assignment agreement? Those agree

The questioner wrote: "But how are you supposed to do that with a full time gig that has you technically under an inventions assignment agreement? Those agreements, arguably, would own anything you create while employed, at least if it's somewhat related to your full time job. Granted, their enforceability is questionable in a lot of cases (especially in California)..." Which means, his employer put a stipulation in the contract which means they own everything done while at work, or anything done outside of work (even if it's not related to the job). I would guess those stipulations are not really enforceable, but I don't know. You wrote: "since you're trying to start a company, what would you think if down the line you found out that one of your employees posted exactly this on HN?" I'm not the OP, but in my case I encourage my employees to have side projects. Even projects that could turn into businesses. I don't own them, and having those outlets often makes them better employees. They obviously have non-competes in their contract, which cover our area of business, but not unrelated side-projects. As a side note, I don't understand why your comment is so aggressive. You're probably right, in that if the contract is really as the poster states the safest thing is to find another job. However overall I think the moral fault lies with the employer, you shouldn't be able to restrict your employees in this way.