When NFTs burst into the zeitgeist less than two years ago, there was a double dose of confusion. First there was, ‘WTF is an NFT??’ Then there was, ‘someone paid HOW MUCH for a little blocky jpg of a cartoon face???’ It would be comforting to know that this confusion…

By Steven Boykey Sidley Follow 24 May 2022 0 Everyone, or at least everyone in media, loves bad news about crypto. Headlines drip with gleeful blood at even the slightest rumour or wobble. …

Defi and The End of Banks © Steven Boykey Sidley Early 2021, in the darkness of lockdown, and flailing around for a creative project to distract the anxious psyche, co-writer Simon Dingle and I decided to write a book. Bitcoin had been all over the news for years, but something…

Book review — The Echo Chamber by John Boyne © Steven Boykey Sidley One of the least reliable descriptions of a book is ‘screamingly funny’. I have launched into many a novel expecting to vocalise mirthfully as per the recommendation, only to find myself perhaps occasionally amused, or at best…

© Steven Boykey Sidley This, surprisingly, is a novel, not a work of non-fiction about the past-Israeli president, Benjamin Netanyahu. And it also has nothing to do with the current politics of Israel , but It has everything to do with a semi-fictional character named Ben-Zion Netanyahu, an Israeli historian…

Book Review — Inside Story — A Novel, by Martin Amis © Steven Boykey SIdley This book is a quandary. One the one hand (and I state this up front to make things clear) it is one of the most profound reading experiences I have ever had, up there with…

The Science of Creativity and 40 Year Old Obsession © Steven Boykey Sidley A very long time ago, at the dawn of technological time (or so it seems from this remove), I was a naïve and enthusiastic young man and the first Apple was yet to be assembled. I was…

Most mornings I exercise in my neighbourhood. On such a morning last week I ride my bike though Zoo Lake, here in my home town Johannesburg, cutting though the park via the small tarred road that takes you past the Bowls Club. On the right of the road there are…

Mark Winkler has written 5 novels, four of which I have read. He is, to my mind, South Africa’s finest novelist (OK, that’s a strong statement, so let me reluctantly walk that back, and say — one of SA’s finest novelists). Such a strong statement needs backup, beyond just a…