Summary: Machines speak in error codes, not stories—but humans crave meaning. So what happens when you try to squeeze a story out of a system message? You get silence—or confusion. This post is a sober look at the limits of artificial intelligence when it’s force-fed tasks it wasn’t built to do, and what that tells us about real communication, human expectations, and the need for clear boundaries between automation and thoughtful storytelling.
Error 101: When There’s Nothing to Rewrite
Let’s get straight to brass tacks: you can’t rewrite what doesn’t exist. A system snippet saying, “I apologize, but the text you provided does not appear to be a raw website text with a main story that needs to be extracted and rewritten…” isn’t hiding a forgotten tale or buried insight. It’s just a polite shrug from the machine saying, “This isn’t a job I’m built for.” And you know what? That’s a good thing.
There’s freedom in that kind of precision. The system received a JSON response with a payment error—“insufficient account balance.” That’s the message. That’s the entire message. It doesn’t need reworking or dressing up. It’s not an underdog story. It’s not a tragic arc. It’s a reminder that input determines output, and if you feed in structure without narrative, you get structure without narrative back out. Like handing a brick to a sculptor and demanding Shakespearean drama—they’re not in the same business.
Machines Don’t “Fail Gracefully.” Humans Do.
Here’s what this storyless non-story tells us: the moment machines try to mimic human generosity—the instinct to apologize, to explain, to reorient—they borrow from our emotional toolkit. But that borrowing is shallow unless backed by human sense-making. This is where users bump into the illusion of intelligence and the reality of automation.
When a bot returns a polite refusal to perform a task, it raises the question: what are we really asking our tools to do? Is it execution, or is it understanding? Is it assistance, or is it insight? And more importantly: what’s our role when tech gives us back a hard ‘No’?
Chris Voss, in Never Split the Difference, argues that “No” is a beginning—not an end. Machines, though, often deploy “No” as a full-stop. But what if we treated it like a negotiator would—with curiosity instead of closure? The real question isn’t “why won’t it write the story?” It’s “why do we expect a story from it in the first place?”
The Illusion of Meaning Is Not Meaning
There’s a temptation—especially with AI tools—to assume every response has hidden value waiting to be squeezed out. But not every return is a treasure chest. Sometimes, it’s just a receipt. Not every message contains insight. Some just contain data. Binary. Boolean. Did it work? Yes or no. Think of a vending machine telling you it’s out of stock. You don’t write a novel. You choose another snack—or walk away.
That’s the point: AI doesn’t resist the urge to dramatize—because it doesn’t have that urge at all. We bring that need. Our emotional economy is always looking for ROI in meaning. Tools, even advanced ones, have no such impulse.
The Line Between Automation and Wisdom
It’s easy to forget this: automation is not intelligence. It’s rule execution. Wisdom happens when rules are challenged, restructured, or reinterpreted. That requires context—a distinctly human grip on meaning-making. You can’t outsource that to a logic tree. When a system says, “There’s no story here,” it’s doing exactly what it was built to do: set limits. Respecting those limits is part of using the tool wisely.
This isn’t a call to lower expectations. It’s a call to aim them more precisely. You don’t use a thermodynamic model to write poetry. You don’t ask a JSON error to inspire revelation. You use the right tool for the right task—and you take ownership of the rest. Delegating output to machines without defining terms and structure first? That’s inviting confusion, not innovation.
Responsibility, Not Just Technology
Here’s where marketing comes back into frame. If you promise “story extraction” and dump raw code into the funnel, you’re not just misunderstanding the tool—you’re setting your audiences up for disappointment. And when you undermine their expectations, you also lose trust, attention, and the platform to convert. Not because the tool is bad, but because the hand guiding it was careless.
Authority comes not from automation but from the discipline of applying it thoughtfully. That means acknowledging its limits, setting them clearly, and directing people toward human-centered interaction when needed. Every “No” from a system is a chance to remind your audience: You’re still at the helm. And that’s not a limitation—it’s your edge.
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Featured Image courtesy of Unsplash and Markus Spiske (9wTPJmiXk2U)
