Imposter.syndrome

This track comes from the overlap of beach life and CTO life — morning surf sessions bleeding into architecture reviews. It tackles Imposter syndrome as a persistent background process - feeling like you don't belong in the rooms you've earned a place in. The lyrics get specific — "And realize that Aaron Stransky's just a guy" — because personal tracks on Majik's are personal for real, not performatively. The lo-fi production matches the energy of the confession. It hits anxious and doubtful, in that order. Every personal track in the catalogue comes from a real moment, a real feeling, a real person. This one is no exception.

[verse 1] Dot syndrome running as a daemon in the background Whispering you don't belong here every time you look around The room full of people with degrees from fancy places And you're the Navy kid who coded between watches and disgraces They'll figure out you're faking, any minute now They'll see behind the title, behind the CTO somehow And realize that Aaron Stransky's just a guy Who read the documentation and gave it a try Nothing special, nothing genius, nothing earned Just a lucky sailor who happened to have learned Enough to fake it this far, but the clock is ticking Imposter dot syndrome, and the anxiety is thickening [chorus] Imposter syndrome running on my system Telling me I'm counterfeit, telling me they'll miss them A beat before they realize I'm not the real thing Imposter syndrome, what a vicious ping Every success is a fluke, every win is a glitch Imposter syndrome, running rich In the process list of every thought I own Imposter syndrome, you're not alone [verse 2] CTO, they call me, and I wait for the correction Founder, they say, and I brace for the rejection Someone in the meeting surely sees the truth That I'm making it up as I go, no formal proof No Stanford dropout story, no Silicon Valley pedigree Just a Lean Six Sigma brain and a military degree In getting things done regardless of the odds But the syndrome says that's not enough, you're just playing gods With technology you stumbled into, not designed to hold The weight of being unconventional in a conventional world [chorus] Imposter syndrome running on my system Telling me I'm counterfeit, telling me they'll miss them A beat before they realize I'm not the real thing Imposter syndrome, what a vicious ping Every success is a fluke, every win is a glitch Imposter syndrome, running rich In the process list of every thought I own Imposter syndrome, you're not alone [bridge] But wait, let me check the logs Five-week platform build, that's in the cogs Of actual achievement, not imagination CTO of a real town, not a simulation Hundred sixty-eight thousand messages of proof That people need me, that I'm not aloof From reality, the imposter's the syndrome Not the man, the disease is the syndrome Kill the process, end the task Sudo kill dash nine, I didn't ask For this parasite on my operating system Time to finally evict it from the system [verse 3] So here's the debug: imposter syndrome lies It runs on insecurity and thrives on the disguise Of humility, but real humility acknowledges the work While the syndrome just tells you you're a jerk Who got lucky, and that's the bug right there Luck doesn't build platforms, luck doesn't repair Broken systems or write code at three AM Luck doesn't make a sailor into what I am So I'm patching this vulnerability in my self-esteem Writing over the malware with a healthier theme I belong here, I built here, I earned this seat Imposter syndrome terminated, process complete [chorus] Imposter syndrome killed on my system I see myself clearly now, and I don't miss them The lies that told me I'm not the real thing Imposter syndrome, silenced ping Every success is earned, every win is mine Imposter syndrome, flat-lined In the process list, finally freed Imposter syndrome, I'm all I need [outro] Process terminated: imposter.syndrome PID: not needed anymore System running clean