Leaving, I've been threatened about legal action and basically said I didn't care, swore a few times and moved on. They won't spend the money to enforce it. Most noncompetes I've seen were written so terribly they wouldn't have a leg to stand on anyways.
It works. Non-comepetes are basically unenforceable regardless of state. They are just used to threaten and bluff. Telling them to fuck off shows you know they have no standing.
Even by the standard of what passes for legal advice on the internet, this is especially terrible advice. I also live in the Midwest and am currently sitting out a noncompete agreement (which, since it must be paid to be enforceable in my state, has been quite enjoyable).
Like you, I’m also not a lawyer, but I did engage the services of a firm when I left. My lawyer informed me in no uncertain terms that my noncompete agreement was enforceable and cited several cases where a) their firm took employers to court to have the agreements tossed and lost and b) unsuccessfully defended people who did what you did and were sued by their previous employer.
In general, “fuck off, sue me” usually isn’t a great legal strategy.
Problem with that advice is you have to believe they won't do anything, and know that these things are garbage when you decide to start looking for another job. If you don't know that these are garbage, or think that they will try and enforce it, then you're probably going to be dissuaded from looking for other work in the first place.
By "get go" do you mean time of signing or when you're leaving? And if the latter, what does that look like at the time you're leaving?