Instagram sign an NDA to join close friends

I’ve made many different riffs on Instagram's close friends feature in the last few months. It’s a strange phenomenon to me that you need to hide things from certain people in your life, but at the same time, I understand if you don’t want your grandma to see all those late nights you spend at the club.

There are things we keep private because they’re personal or maybe embarrassing. Then there are the things we work on that have real, quantifiable value (at least in the eyes of lawyers and corporations): intellectual property.

IP is a strange thing, but it’s a valuable commodity in certain contexts. This is why you sign an NDA when you work at so many companies. In the past, I’ve also had people ask me to sign an NDA before they share an idea. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized it is very rare for an idea alone to have much intrinsic value. Most ideas are contingent upon execution and distribution to become truly powerful.

That said, for people who do value their own IP, what if there was an option to force you to sign an NDA in order to join their close friend's list? On one hand, this is annoying and a step too far, but on the other hand it would make for a very interesting social dynamic.

Have a friend who would 100% use this? Send them this newsletter.

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