Summary: Not all written material is meant to tell a story. In a world flooded with narrative-driven marketing advice, there are crucial moments when stripping away storytelling is not just acceptable—it’s necessary. This post lays out the case for when a hard, static piece of data—like a JSON error message—contains no story to retell, and why pretending otherwise wastes time, money, and attention. Professionals need to know when to narrate and when to shut up and listen to what the system is actually saying.
When There Is Nothing to Rewrite—Say So
“Unfortunately, the provided text does not contain a story that can be extracted and rewritten. The text appears to be a JSON response with an error message related to an insufficient account balance.” This statement is not lazy. It’s disciplined. It implies restraint, accuracy, and most importantly, respect—for both the truth and your audience’s intelligence.
Think about that for a second. An error message, structured in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), is fundamentally a communication between software and developer. It’s not wrapped in metaphor, it’s not guiding a prospect to a hero’s journey. It’s just saying: “The account balance is too low. The operation failed.” What use is pretending that’s a narrative? Is there really a protagonist, conflict, and transformation arc? Or is this a mechanical fork-in-the-road alert, pointing to a lack of resources?
Why Turning JSON Errors into Narratives Is Marketing Self-Sabotage
Marketing has always pushed the envelope of interpretation—dreams, fears, identity. That’s fair. But at some point, repackaging a basic machine output like a JSON error exposes a chronic problem in both tech communication and content strategy: the assumption that everything must be turned into a story.
Doing that wastes time. If you’re a developer or operations lead, you’re not reading a JSON code to weep, wonder, or win. You’re asking, “What went wrong? Do I fix the API call, add funds, or debug the header config?” Pretending there’s a story builds friction, not clarity. You’re not empathizing—you’re padding.
So let’s mirror the key concern: “The text does not contain a story that can be extracted and rewritten.” What kind of pressure makes people want to force narrative onto something that is fundamentally structural? Is it fear of not producing content? A misguided brand directive?
Respect the Signal: Why This Matters for Professional Communicators
You wouldn’t add backstory to a traffic light turning red. You wouldn’t ask your accountant to add metaphors to your balance sheet. So why do it in your system's failure messages? A JSON error gives precise information with no need for embellishment. If you're negotiating trust—as every brand does—trying to spin this into a narrative breaks the unspoken deal with your audience: “Tell me what I need to hear, clearly, and don't dress it up.”
Chris Voss calls this respecting the “No.” When the data says “no funds,” and you try to narrate your way around it, what you're doing is denial theater. Worse, you’re training your stakeholders, clients, or team to doubt your grip on clarity—and your ability to prioritize signal over noise.
Communications Have Context—And Code Isn't Conversation
Now, does that mean data never tells a bigger story? Of course not. Aggregate data over time tells you usage trends, behavior habits, financial health. But those are patterns over time, not one 40-byte response on a dead transaction.
Let’s be honest—there’s nothing wrong with having “insufficient funds.” It’s a result of action, maybe negligence, maybe growth. Maybe you’re scaling so fast your prepaid account structure just wasn’t ready. That’s where you reframe, not at the level of the JSON alert, but in the actions that got you there. That’s where stories live—in consequences, not in logging syntax.
So how do we handle this as marketers, developers, or business professionals?
- Recognize when data is data, not drama.
- Acknowledge facts before editorializing.
- Communicate errors cold and clean, then follow with resolution strategies if needed.
- Don’t insult the user’s intelligence by inserting fluff.
Train Your Team to Know the Difference
Internally, your marketing and dev teams must operate with shared tools of discernment. Not every glitch in a system is a user story. Not every backend problem is a UX narrative. When teams don’t recognize the line, energy gets misallocated. Execution fails not because of lack of ideas, but because of too many unjustified pivots into “content creation for content’s sake.”
Let me ask you directly—what happens when a client of yours reads a polished blog post reframing "insufficient funds" with a motivational spin? Does trust rise, or do they get suspicious? Doesn’t it confirm what they fear about the tech world—that beneath its clarity is a condescending agenda?
There’s a time to inspire. There’s a time to be precise. Knowing the difference is what separates professionals from noise merchants.
Clarity Over Creativity—When Simplicity Sells
What we’re talking about here is simplicity with purpose. Einstein said, “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.” The JSON error message is simple—and anything you add probably makes it worse unless you’re fixing the problem or triggering the next step. That’s where persuasion and professionalism meet. You decide: are you helping resolve a problem or just filling dead air?
Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools in marketing—but applying it indiscriminately will cost you credibility. Use it for human needs, future vision, aspiration, and belief. Not for log files and status messages.
Next time you get a generic technical message and instinctively want to "humanize" it, stop and ask: What’s the actual purpose of this message? Who needs to respond to it? And is clarity being sacrificed for content padding? That pause—that silence—is often where strong communication begins.
#TechnicalCommunication #ErrorHandling #MarketingDiscipline #ProfessionalWriting #JSONErrors #StorytellingLimits #InformationClarity #DeveloperMarketing
Featured Image courtesy of Unsplash and Joshua Hoehne (vCO1Frox2j4)