Today I speak for myself.

Previously in my life, I’ve spoken with much reservation. There is much to talk about that is too real, too controversial, too obvious to talk about.

When you work in the tech industry, for a large company with more lawyers than you have members in your family, you watch your mouth.

Employees sign away their rights just for the interview. In the offer paperwork, they look over the invention disclosure and figure out that basically they are forfeiting any idea they might have.

A kind of legal mental slavery. Even fighting a winning intellectual property case against a large company is a loss for the smaller party.

Many companies also have vague nondisclosure and social media policies that may limit what you can say online. At the very least, saying anything about your work, positive or not, is dangerous territory.

After working for SpaceX, the government also wants to keep track of what I say. ITAR, they call it. Basically, by talking about anything I know about rocketry, or how to build a rocket (what the US worries will be a ballistic missile), the US government can send me to federal prison and fine me a huge sum of money.

If you were on the internet in the late 90’s, and ITAR sounds familiar, it should. Netscape famously had different download sites for non-US downloaders, to skirt the “export of encryption technologies.” This national “weapon” was SSL, and now allows people everywhere to securely conduct trade over the internet.

Today I am speaking for myself. I’m speaking now from what I have seen, from what I have analyzed, and the conclusions I have reached.

So read, if you will, for we have a lot of ground to cover. While you should judge someone based on their actions, today their words carry much further.

But words will not solve all our problems. Informed action could, if we have the courage to try.

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Please, let me know what you think! Do you work in an industry where you can’t talk about what you do? Does that bother you? Tell me your extraordinary stories!

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Check out my startup: http://www.timeslicelabs.com
Find me on twitter: @cbanek