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Hash It Out · Track 2 of 20

Certified or Feel Right

Jarrett Heintz · 3:55 · Released 28 September 2025

  • Exam Room
  • Security Culture
  • Exam mindset
  • Certifications
  • Hash It Out — the album
  • Everything, A to Z
  • Human Layer
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Lyrics

  1. I was starin’ down a question, felt my eyes begin to blur
  2. All the jargon, all the nuance—sleeping dogs began to stir
  3. They demanded one right answer though a dozen might be true
  4. And the deeper that I read, the less I felt I knew
  5. They said “Pick the best response,” but the logic seemed askew
  6. I clutched my study guide, wonderin’ what I should do
  7. But I remembered every time I fought that convoluted tide
  8. How it never really mattered if my reason felt denied
  9. Do you want to be certified or feel right?
  10. Intend, unlock, transcend—cert is now in sight
  11. We learn together, this madness we can’t fight
  12. So play their game their way or lose by your own rules tonight.
  13. There’s a sinking kind of feeling when the wording twists your view
  14. Like a maze of maybe-meanings with a trap behind each clue
  15. Each choice just hovers weightless ‘til you click it with your mouse
  16. Second guesses trick the thinking—was it insight? Was it doubt?
  17. It’s a test of trust and timing, not just rules and recollection
  18. Where an educated gamble is a form of true discretion
  19. And though the clarity is fleeting, though it chafes against the heart
  20. We lean into contradiction; it exacerbates the guard
  21. Do you want to be certified or feel right?
  22. Intend, unlock, transcend—winning now in sight
  23. We learn together, this madness we can’t fight
  24. So play their game their way or lose by your own rules tonight.
  25. Sometimes I want to scream aloud:
  26. “Don’t bury sense beneath a cloud!”
  27. But the gatekeepers have forged their path
  28. Letting logic yield to bureaucratic wrath
  29. If you want that gold star on your name
  30. It’s a puzzle of a puzzle—a meta-game
  31. Though half of you might shudder in dismay
  32. You can’t change it all to work your way
  33. So we gather by the lamplight with the highlight pen in hand
  34. Memorizing definitions in that InfoSec wonderland
  35. “Confidentiality” spelled out in multiple-choice lines
  36. “Integrity” feels flexible, “Available” word mines
  37. We curse the lingo, shrug it off, still hoping that we’ll stand
  38. Ready to cross that finish, though we barely understand
  39. And we cling to every practice test, we chant each bullet point
  40. “It’s not about what’s right or true—just who can read it how they do"
  41. Do you want to be certified or feel right?
  42. Intend, unlock, transcend—keep your eyes on the prize
  43. We learn together, this madness we can’t fight
  44. So play their game or cut thy nose despite thy face
  45. And when the mouse click is finished, when the questions are all locked
  46. We’ll rise from our seat, and push in the chair, either way, another day in that infosec lair
  47. “Do you want to be certified or feel right?” echoes in the wind
  48. But in the end, we keep on learning—because we choose to transcend
  49. Yes, we learn together—indeed, we choose to transcend.