<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>tomasien</author><text>They&amp;#x27;re hard to enforce, but I can tell you from experience (current) that it doesn&amp;#x27;t matter - their existence and enforceability in ANY way in a given state is harmful in a big way. California has basically done the right thing and decided to ignore them, but my home state only has rendered them ALMOST entirely unenforceable. That almost leaves a lot of room for the casual observer to judge - and it stings.</text><parent_chain><item><author>gtrubetskoy</author><text>As I understand it, non-competes are very hard to enforce and are more of an intimidation tactic than anything else. You cannot be prevented from earning a living the only way you know how given the demand for your skills. If you&amp;#x27;re bound by a non-compete and the only (or the best) job available is with the competition, you shouldn&amp;#x27;t be afraid to take it, and the courts will side with you if someone goes after you (well, unless you&amp;#x27;re in Hawaii according to the article!).&lt;p&gt;An agreement is not enforceable if it is unreasonable, and denying someone the opportunity to make a living is pretty much unreasonable out of the box. Of course it&amp;#x27;s not true in every case, but it is mostly true for &amp;quot;techie jobs&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;(I am not a laywer, the above is not legal advice).</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Hawaii Bans Non-Compete and Non-Solicit Clauses in High-Tech Employment</title><url>https://casetext.com/posts/hawaii-bans-non-compete-and-non-solicit-clauses-in-high-tech-employment</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>sib</author><text>Washington and Massachusetts (states with significant high-tech employee bases) are also very friendly to employers in enforcing non-competes. (IANAL)</text><parent_chain><item><author>gtrubetskoy</author><text>As I understand it, non-competes are very hard to enforce and are more of an intimidation tactic than anything else. You cannot be prevented from earning a living the only way you know how given the demand for your skills. If you&amp;#x27;re bound by a non-compete and the only (or the best) job available is with the competition, you shouldn&amp;#x27;t be afraid to take it, and the courts will side with you if someone goes after you (well, unless you&amp;#x27;re in Hawaii according to the article!).&lt;p&gt;An agreement is not enforceable if it is unreasonable, and denying someone the opportunity to make a living is pretty much unreasonable out of the box. Of course it&amp;#x27;s not true in every case, but it is mostly true for &amp;quot;techie jobs&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;(I am not a laywer, the above is not legal advice).</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Hawaii Bans Non-Compete and Non-Solicit Clauses in High-Tech Employment</title><url>https://casetext.com/posts/hawaii-bans-non-compete-and-non-solicit-clauses-in-high-tech-employment</url></story>