So, I finally got around to reading that “Rock Paper Scissors” book. You know, the one folks were whispering about, saying it was a real head-spinner. I’m usually up for a story that messes with your brain a bit, so I thought, alright, let’s give it a whirl. Picked it up last week, wanting to see if it lived up to the hype.
Started digging into it, and yeah, it definitely tries to suck you in. You get these characters, this weird situation, and you immediately start trying to figure out who’s playing who. Classic thriller setup. The writing’s pretty straightforward, nothing too fancy, which I guess helps you focus on the twists they’re trying to throw at you. I was feeling pretty clever at points, thinking I’d nailed down what was really going on. You know that feeling, when you’re like, “Aha! I see what you did there!”?
But this book, wow. It really got me thinking about how you can be so convinced about something, or someone, and then suddenly, the rug just gets yanked out from under you. It wasn’t so much the story itself, but the feeling it stirred up. It threw me back to this one time, a good few years ago now. Not a made-up story, this was real life, and let me tell you, real life can be a harsher teacher than any book.
I was pouring everything I had into this software idea I’d cooked up. Thought it was genuinely going to help a lot of small businesses. I’m talking late nights, weekends, the whole shebang – ramen noodles for dinner, the classic startup struggle. I had this partner, let’s call him “Mark.” Mark was all smiles and enthusiasm, constantly saying, “This is genius!” and “We’re gonna make a killing!” We had it all planned out, or so I believed. Our strategy felt as solid as rock.
We were trying to get this one investor on board, a pretty big name. Mark was the smooth-talker, handled all the schmoozing. He kept telling me, “It’s in the bag, mate! He loves it!” So, I kept my head down, perfecting the tech, making sure every line of code was pristine. The day Mark was supposed to have the final meeting to seal the deal, I was on pins and needles. He calls me up later, sounding like he’d won the lottery. “They’re in! Just a couple of tiny changes they want, and we sign next week!”
So, I busted my chops making those “tiny changes.” But “next week” turned into “the week after,” then “end of the month.” Every time I asked Mark what was up, it was a new excuse. “Oh, the lawyers are reviewing.” “Oh, he’s travelling for business.” “Oh, just some internal hold-up.” Standard corporate-speak that means nothing. Meanwhile, my savings were dwindling faster than ice cream on a summer day. But Mark kept saying, “Relax, it’s happening!”
Then one morning, I’m scrolling through some tech news, and there it is. A big announcement. The investor? He’d just launched a brand-new platform. And what do you know, it looked an awful lot like our platform, complete with some suspiciously familiar “tiny changes.” My stomach just dropped. I tried calling Mark. Straight to voicemail. Emailed him. Silence. The guy basically ghosted me.
It slowly dawned on me. Mark had played me. He’d used my idea, my work, to get his foot in the door, probably pitched it as mostly his own, then cut me out clean. He was the rock, I was the scissors, and all my hard work got smashed to bits. All those sacrifices, all that belief… just gone. It wasn’t just the idea; it was the feeling of being played for a fool by someone I trusted. That stings more than anything.
Took me a long while to shake that off. You get wary, you know? You start double-thinking everything, wondering what people’s real motives are. It’s like you’re constantly trying to guess if they’re showing you rock, paper, or scissors, but their hand is always hidden.
So yeah, reading “Rock Paper Scissors,” with all its mind games and “who’s tricking who,” it definitely resonated. It’s entertaining when it’s a book, all these characters with their secrets and deceptions. But when you’ve had a taste of that kind of manipulation in your own life, it makes you look at those stories a bit differently. You understand how easy it is to be fooled by what’s on the surface, and how sometimes the game is rigged from the start.
Anyway, that’s just what popped into my head while reading it. The book’s a wild ride if you like that kind of thing. Definitely keeps you guessing. Just maybe don’t read it if you’re already feeling a bit paranoid about the people around you, eh?
