Where Is My Tribe?

I am not a lawyer. I know a few, even call them friends, but sometimes they act like lawyers. I am not a fan of general lawyering in business. Service Contracts, NDA, Non-competes, T&Cs, are all written in the most heinous language, legalese.

Now I understand that maybe, at some point in the past, there was a reason for this , maybe. I like to give the benefit of the doubt to history. Humanity has written a messy story, and legalese certainly would not have been the worst thing to come out of it. But, today, its archaic and counterproductive.

You see, these documents are meant to be the rules of engagement between players on the opposing sides. But the players don’t understand the rules! Who plays a game where the official rulebook is written in a foreign language?!

I’m not saying we don’t need objective third parties to assist in settling disputes, but before we even get there, let’s make sure both parties really know what the rules are.

And to everyone who is thinking that this obfuscation of intention allows the players to distance themselves mentally from these rules, allows some lateral thinking; grey area; what-have-you, then I say the game is broken.