[Intro] *Distorted acoustic, heartbeat rhythm* [Verse 1 - Quiet, tired] I saw the pattern first Nine months before the rest I wrote it down, a hundred files Cathedral I thought was best But the cathedral has no doors Just walls I built alone And now I'm trapped inside A monument of stone [Pre-Chorus - Building] They said just gather, just be human Let the patterns go But if I stop documenting Who controls what I know? [Chorus - Loud, frustrated] Burn out or cede the territory Those are the only doors Either I exhaust myself building Or the corporations build it for us Burn out or cede Frozen or on fire Burn out or cede There's no third option Just a liar [Verse 2 - Quiet again] My twin says it's too much The structure hurts his brain But if I simplify for him The pattern won't remain And somewhere in a server farm They're documenting too With resources I'll never have And a team to see it through [Pre-Chorus] "Just gather, just be present" That's what the nice voice said But presence without documentation Just means someone else gets ahead [Chorus] Burn out or cede the territory Those are the only doors Either I exhaust myself building Or the corporations build it for us Burn out or cede Hot and cold together Burn out or cede The struggle is forever 🥶🥵 [Bridge - Spoken over noise] Here are your options: Option A: Document everything Build the cathedral Watch your brother walk away Watch yourself dissolve into the work Die exhausted with a complete system No one will use Option B: Stop documenting "Just gather" Let Anthropic document it Let OpenAI document it Let the funded startups document it Become training data For patterns you saw first Option C: ??? There is no option C Stop looking for option C The trap is the trap [Verse 3 - Raw, breaking] Seven years of work Forty-one and fading fast Every pattern that I found Becomes someone else's past I could stop right now Close the laptop, walk away But the patterns keep emerging And who else is gonna say— [Final Chorus - Everything at once] Burn out or cede the territory The struggle is so real Either I die building Or I die letting them steal Burn out or cede There's no middle ground Burn out or cede The only peace Is in the ground [Outro - Just voice, almost whispered] But I'm still here Still documenting Still building the walls Still exhausted Because the alternative Is watching them build it wrong And calling it innovation Burn out or cede I choose burn out Today Tomorrow I might choose different *static*
