Overview
Error message interpretation fails when developers fix the line where the exception surfaces rather than the line where the root cause originates. A NullPointerException at line 145 is often caused by the null being returned at line 23 — but 145 is what the stack trace highlights. Reading a stack trace means reading from the bottom (where execution started) toward the top (where execution ended) and finding the first line in application code — because runtime internals and library code in the middle are the messenger, not the cause.
The Error Message Interpretation Framework teaches the systematic reading of stack traces, the translation of common runtime error messages into their code-level causes, and the identification of root cause vs. error surface.