Staying Human: Bitcoin, Literature, and Creativity w/ George Kaloudis
Think Bitcoin Podcast Ep. #15
In this week’s episode of the Think Bitcoin Podcast, I sat down with George Kaloudis to discuss reading, inner silence, creativity, and how both literature and Bitcoin help us stay human in a world that is speeding up and drifting toward automation. George has one of the most interesting minds in the space because he thinks about people first. Our conversation moves through literature, attention, the soul of stillness, and why Bitcoiners often find themselves drawn to art once they clear the noise out of their lives.
🎧 Listen to the full episode:
[Spotify] | [Apple Podcasts] | [YouTube] | [Fountain]
Early in our discussion George talked about the modern inability to be alone without stimulation. He brought up David Foster Wallace and the way public spaces are designed to drown silence. As he put it:
“I think he talks about how you go out, you go to a coffee shop and what are they doing? They are piping in music. It might actually be good, but you cannot just sit in this silence.”
From there he connected reading to an older Greek concept:
“There is this concept in Greek philosophy and in the Greek Orthodox faith of hēsuchia. It is the soul of stillness. A lot of people try to get there through prayer and ascetic struggle. I am not saying reading is an ascetic struggle, but you have to work at it.”
In a world where meditation feels too “hippie dippy” and religion feels too politicized, he sees reading as a secular path toward the same kind of inward quiet:
“You need that inner silence no matter what God you believe or do not believe in. So go read a book.”
Reading, Taste, and Getting Back Into Literature
When we talked about how to rekindle a reading habit, George resisted gatekeeping. He brought up the Harold Bloom critique of popular fiction and contrasted it with a more generous view:
“If it gets someone into reading, this is the anti Harold Bloom argument. Harold Bloom says they are terrible and no one should read them. But if someone needs to read some books and they open Harry Potter and it gateway drugs them over to something else, that is great.”
He laughed at how often people lump Tolkien and Rowling together:
“I am more of a Lord of the Rings guy. Tolkien’s far and away. They are different animals.”
George also spoke about the structure of modern commercial fiction. He described the rows of bright, interchangeable books you see in chain bookstores:
“Those books that are bright pink, bright yellow, bright blue, and they all look like the same book and they are all written in the present tense. They kind of have the same arc.”
From there we turned to sci-fi and how genres evolve. George explained how the early pulp sci-fi world functioned:
“Science fiction was not a respected genre and the people who were reading science fiction were science fiction fans.”
He contrasted that with a writer like Ursula K. Le Guin, whose literary skill elevated the form:
“She broke out of sci-fi. She wrote for everyone else. Even if you do not like sci-fi, you are going to like my books.”
The lesson, he noted, applies to Bitcoin writing too:
Time Preference, Culture, and What Bitcoin Can and Cannot Do
We moved into the question of whether Bitcoin creates a low time preference culture. George was skeptical of simplistic narratives that claim Bitcoin automatically produces artistic depth:
“There is this idea that when people understand proof of work and sound money that it is going to go hand in hand with this appreciation of page by page by page. All of a sudden you have 400 pages and you surprise yourself. That is a Steinbeck quote that I bastardized.”
He acknowledged the appeal of cathedral metaphors, but remained cautious:
“They talk about the cathedral. A cathedral is built across generations, not in 10 years. Maybe society, because of Bitcoin, will have this appreciation. I am not so sure.”
Later he connected time preference to basic finance. When people imagine they will suddenly apply low time preference thinking to everything, he offered a grounded counterweight:
“When people make purchasing decisions they are not pulling out their financial calculator to figure out the risk free rate of return. Time value of money works in theory. When I am buying day to day things, am I thinking high time preference or low time preference? It depends.”
Why Bitcoiners Often Love Literature
One of my favorite parts of the conversation was when George explained why Bitcoiners tend to become readers:
“A lot of people who got into Bitcoin did so because they are very critical of the world around them. They ask why, they ask why, they ask why. That is a good way to approach literature. You can then look at the human condition and say why, why, why. I think I know why. Do you think this is why?”
He connected that spirit to Vonnegut, Le Guin, Asimov, and the broader tradition of speculative fiction that uses unreal settings to illuminate real truths.
Practical Reading Advice
Near the end of our conversation, I asked George how someone could get back into reading without starting with a thousand-page novel. He lit up at the question:
“Short stories are a decent way to get back into it. We have short attention spans.”
He recommended Ted Chiang’s Exhalation:
“Ted Chiang lays out these really thoughtful short stories. Maybe give a couple of those stories a try.”
And he returned to a writer who means a lot to him:
“Dennis Johnson is someone who got me back into reading.”
He added a note of encouragement for anyone intimidated by big-name authors:
“I know I said maybe Denis Johnson is not for everyone, but give him a go. If you do not like his style, back it back up.”
Why This Conversation Matters
George’s thinking sits in a space I want Think Bitcoin to keep exploring. Bitcoin is not just about price or engineering or macroeconomics. It is about the human condition. It is about attention, stillness, meaning, and what it takes to wake back up in a world designed to numb us.
As George put it early in our talk, when you strip away the noise and rediscover that “soul of stillness,” you realize how much your mind has been craving depth.
Reading helps. Bitcoin helps. Conversations like this help.
📚 Explore: On Sawdust and Broken Glass (George’s novel)
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See you next time,
Logan
The connection betwen Bitcoin and finding that inner silence really hits. Once you understand sound money, you stop chasing the nois and have space for deeper things. Literature seems like such a natural next step for bitcoiners for this exact reson.