Characteristics of an interpreter

DON HERRON, BP, Houston, Texas, U.S.

Over the course of a career spanning almost three decades, pretation and a model-guided interpretation.
I’ve met interpreters of all shapes, sizes, and temperaments, 17) You know the difference between accuracy and preci-
and have had occasion to wonder what are the professional sion.
and personal characteristics that make a good interpreter. I 18) You understand your own limitations as an interpreter;
think the qualities that best suit an individual to be an inter- in the words of C. Hewitt Dix, you know for yourself
preter are not necessarily academic, in that there is no direct “when no correlation is possible.”
or obvious correlation between the level of higher educa- 19) As a consequence of characteristic 18, you have the
tion achieved and career success (however one might define courage to say out loud that you know your limitations
this). Rather, the most important qualities seem to be as an interpreter.
grounded in personality, in the approach and attitude an 20) You have learned from experience that there are only two
interpreter brings to the job and also in the profound and types of interpretation: those that have been revised and
intimate sense of satisfaction that motivates one to do this those that need to be.
kind of work. You might say these qualities are the “right 21 You are aware that not many of your interpretation pro-
stuff,” an ideal blend of technical ability and innate personal jects will ever be tested by drilling, and, of those that
traits that broadens and deepens with maturity and expe- are, some will be after you’ve transferred to other pro-
rience. jects.
In this admittedly subjective context, I offer the follow- 22) You have learned to carefully document your work,
ing list of characteristics of an interpreter. The list is not because your maps and reports speak for you long after
exhaustive (or exhausting), and certainly is not in any order you’ve moved on.
of importance. 23) You realize that no interpretation is complete until its
attendant uncertainty has been thoroughly described.
1) You are naturally curious about the earth. 24) You eagerly read TLE each month (of course you do). TLE
2) You are flexible enough to handle multiple interpretive
possibilities for virtually every project you’ll ever see. Corresponding author: herronda@bp.com
3) You can tolerate the criticism that you’re never working
fast enough.
4) You have sufficient self control to hold back tears when
thinking about all the good science you could have done
with all the data you’ve seen.
5) You are committed to doing a task that some people think
can be done routinely by anyone, and about which most
people really don’t want to hear any details.
6) You are able to withstand second guessing of your work
by people who have limited understanding of the man-
ner in which the work is done.
7) You have sufficient thickness of skin to watch and not
comment when your work is presented or used without
acknowledgment.
8) You can accept that your professional skills base may
not be thought of as a specialty.
9) You can visualize geology in three dimensions without
the latest advances in visualization tools and technolo-
gies, and use those tools as enhancements to, not replace-
ments for, fundamental visualization skills.
10) You have highly developed pattern recognition skills.
11) You are aware that much of the time you’ll be working
alone, even in the contemporary team-oriented business
environment.
12) You recognize that no single workstation system or appli-
cation package will ever enable you to perform all the
interpretive tasks you’ll need to do.
13) You have learned that your interpretation skills are com-
plemented by your knowledge of data acquisition and
processing.
14) You willingly take responsibility for the output of auto-
mated processes whose workings you don’t always fully
understand.
15) You appreciate that, no matter how good your seismic
correlations look, they must always be modified to fit
wireline log and biostratigraphic correlations.
16) You know the difference between a model-based inter-

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