When it comes to enslavement to giant corporations or government, all I can say is:

"The only winning move is not to play."

In all cases where I was presented with an unreasonable non-compete, I either negotiated it away or scratched it out before signing. I know not everyone has that luxury, but if your BATNA is signing, it's worth a shot.

Thankful that California banned them, others should follow suit.

Not worth even printing out where I am. They are worthless.

With the recent well publicised cases of developers stealing proprietary information, this is going to become more common.

Just ignore them completely unless you're an executive.

Not enforceable in California

There's a strong argument to be made that the banning of non-competes is the main reason California is the software capital of the world.

Story time for NC's. I had a doctor that lived near me working at a medical clinic that got bought up by PE. He signed the new contract with them and kept working for a while, but decided he needed to move for one reason or another. After he quits, PE informs him of the NC in the new contract he signed, and that he wouldn't be able to practice medicine for N years (I think it was something like 5). He ended up hanging himself, and in response, the clinic's staff quit en masse and basically dared the PE company to try and enforce the clause. PE backed down because suing all the doctors individually would have cost too much and it would have been awful PR for the practice. They ended up selling the clinic before the year was out.

Non-competes in finance almost always come with compensation during the defined period.

The idea that a company can restrict at-will employee’s post-separation employment is absurd if they aren’t compensating the individual.

In many US states and countries outside the US, the enforcement of non-competes is very very hard. The problem is that they create a RISK of enforcement.

I’d be fine signing a non compete if they ever offered anything in return. If they want me to stay out of the market for a period of time, they better pay garden leave or SOME sort of consideration