These clauses are for the company to cover their ass. Let's say you make Flappy Bird at Google and they try to claim it. The bad publicity will not be worth it.
Working on a side project that competes with their core business is different. But if it's a pet project with 100 users then Google will be seen as the bad guy again. How about 1 million users? Then you've created a competitor and less people will sympathize with it being shut down.
These clauses are for the company to cover their ass. Let's say you make Flappy Bird at Google and they try to claim it. The bad publicity will not be worth it.
Working on a side project that competes with their core business is different. But if it's a pet project with 100 users then Google will be seen as the bad guy again. How about 1 million users? Then you've created a competitor and less people will sympathize with it being shut down.
I hope that made sense.