George Saunders

And then that could be used in these complex computer things to predict the sort of three-dimensional topography underground, which then in turn could be used to locate wells.

How did you get into that?

Well, I trained for it.

I mean, I was a geophysics major.

And that was at that time in the 80s.

That was kind of what they were teaching at the School of Mines in geophysics.

Yeah.

You have a highly mathematical and technical and it was kind of, I mean, one of the things that happened that was kind of life informing was I was kind of a trainee and I was in a room and they're having a meeting in the next room of the kind of higher ups.

And it became clear, I could overhear it, that the grid that we were using to submit our drilling recommendations and the grid that the National Oil Company of Indonesia was using were different.

So we would say, drill here.

And they would take it onto their map and drill in a completely randomized location.

And so as a conversation unfolded, everybody's getting kind of awkwardly quiet in there, you know.

And then there was a kind of a group agreement that this was unfortunate, but it could be overlooked.

And we wouldn't, it wouldn't go any further up the line.

So for like 10 years, they've been drilling everywhere.

They've been spending millions of dollars on this information and then randomizing it and drilling anyway.

And then they just decided to keep it quiet.

So it was Kafka.

Yeah, I mean, I have a kind of a, at that time, it was very simple.

I mean, it was just an adventure.