Now Shipping Soylent 2.0 • Hacker News Board

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#101

Post by drewrv » Wed, Sep 09, 2015, 9:42 PM UTC

MarcusVorenus wrote: post #78

cryoshon wrote: post #74

Please stop this culture of insanity, it is destructive. I get it, Soylent is targeting the "100X engineer" crowd who are supposed to be unflappably dedicated near-godlike ubermenschen. I get that people need to telegraph "how busy" they are by constantly talking about it to everyone with ears. I understand that people need to communicate high-value to each other, and do this by referencing how much responsibility th…

I think it's fascinating how hostile some people can get towards Soylent. It's like they think the mere existence of it is an attack to the core of their identity. I wonder if it's just insecurity triggered by people liking something that they don't like or some other type of psychological defense mechanism.

Back when I was a vegetarian I got a lot of the same thing. People would get upset about what I would or wouldn't put into my own body.

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#102

Post by serge2k » Wed, Sep 09, 2015, 9:43 PM UTC

erikpukinskis wrote: post #82

cryoshon wrote: post #74

Please stop this culture of insanity, it is destructive. I get it, Soylent is targeting the "100X engineer" crowd who are supposed to be unflappably dedicated near-godlike ubermenschen. I get that people need to telegraph "how busy" they are by constantly talking about it to everyone with ears. I understand that people need to communicate high-value to each other, and do this by referencing how much responsibility th…

You are not accurately describing the complexity of cooking for oneself. This is common amongst people who cook for themselves: you have forgotten just how much skill you bring to bear throughout the week. The first step is not, as you describe, taking a few minutes to prepare food. The first step is buying the raw ingredients. No one will really tell you how to do this. Good home cooks have dozens of menu plans in t…

Go to store. Buy Food. Go Home. Cook food. eat.

I frequently fail to do this, to my detriment, but I don't pretend it's so hard and complex. I'm tired and lazy at the end of the day, so I eat easier (usually worse for me) things. That simple. Is soylent the answer, maybe.

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#103

Post by cheshire137 » Wed, Sep 09, 2015, 9:46 PM UTC

cryoshon wrote: post #74

Please stop this culture of insanity, it is destructive. I get it, Soylent is targeting the "100X engineer" crowd who are supposed to be unflappably dedicated near-godlike ubermenschen. I get that people need to telegraph "how busy" they are by constantly talking about it to everyone with ears. I understand that people need to communicate high-value to each other, and do this by referencing how much responsibility th…

> I guess if you're a meta-human weirdo who claims to have no inherent desire to consume tasty food and just wants to "get it out of the way", Soylent is for you. I don't believe you actually exist, though.

Here I am, right here! 28-year-old woman, just to give some demographic information. I don't like cooking, I don't want to deal with produce that goes bad before I get around to preparing it. Soylent is a lovely time-saver for me.

What is with the vehement anti-Soylent crowd who just can't believe some of us have more enjoyable ways to spend our time than cooking, planning meals, preparing ingredients, and grocery shopping?

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#104

Post by DanBC » Wed, Sep 09, 2015, 9:47 PM UTC

tunesmith wrote: post #80

I'd love to see less snark/hostility/FUD on these Soylent threads. 1. No, Soylent is not the same as Ensure with different packaging/marketing 2. No, Soylent does not have illegal levels of heavy metals, nor did it in the past. 3. People don't tend to eat nutritionally complete meals every meal of the day. Measuring Soylent against this ideal is beside the point. Soylent is inarguably better than coke and cheetos, th…

I'd love to see Soylent apologising for the untruthful misleading lies they told during fundraising.

Until they apologise they deserve scorn. (Edit)

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#105

Post by drewrv » Wed, Sep 09, 2015, 9:50 PM UTC

Nadya wrote: post #25

farnsworth wrote: post #15

If you buy the powder, it's easy to blend in some fruit or other flavoring, which gives it more variety and a better taste. Or by itself, it's pretty easy to prepare even in just a shaker bottle if you don't have a blender. I'm curious to see how the texture of 2.0 will compare to way it turns out when I make it at home, though. I assume we'll see the bottled form in stores whenever they're able to produce enough, an…

I've tried cinnamon, peanut butter powder, cocoa powder, Nesquik, banana, mango, chocolate syrup, vanilla extract, and even tried to mix coffee in after the initial mixing. Nothing has gotten rid of the horribly overpowering taste. I have 3 weeks of 1.5 sitting in my cabinets because I'm unable to stomach it. I don't have overly sensitive taste buds (I will eat almost anything) but simply cannot stomach Soylent. I fe…

I add torani syrup, they are easy to mix in (don't require a blender or anything) and have a wide variety of flavors (including a good selection of sugar free).

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#106

Post by DanBC » Wed, Sep 09, 2015, 9:51 PM UTC

collyw wrote: post #71

bufordsharkley wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the response from Soylent is that fiber itself is not necessary; it's only needed to move along solid food through the digestive system. If you're only drinking Soylent, you should need far less fiber, if any at all. I am seeing a lot of criticism of this online [1], however. [1] http://discourse.soylent.me/t/reduced-fiber-in-1-5/21706/8

Because a bunch of engineers is going to know best about that sort of thing. (It wasn't invented by gastroenteroligists was it?)

They pay for dietician advice. The credentials of those dieticians are probably online somewhere.

I'm not sure when in the process they got this advice, or if there's a dietician on staff full time.

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#107

Post by Kalium » Wed, Sep 09, 2015, 9:51 PM UTC

JohnTHaller wrote: post #97

Kalium wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used Soylent to lose weight. It helped me gain very precise control over caloric intake. You know what? I didn't care that it was a bland nutrient slurry. I cared about the "dehumanizing" control it gave me. I cared about the options it brought to my life. Discovering significant extra time in my day by not cooking 8x a week was a nice bonus. What I'm really seeing in your comments is that you're struggling to unde…

Pay it no mind. It's the "I don't understand it and it doesn't specifically work for my life so it must be wrong" mindset. I've used Soylent as you have and it frees up time and funds as well as making calorie tracking easier.

While I can't say Soylent freed up funds for me, I can say it made food costs a lot more predictable.

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#108

Post by dragonwriter » Wed, Sep 09, 2015, 9:53 PM UTC

omouse wrote: post #31

seiji wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is where tech vs. business breaks down. Tech thinks everything has to be new, unique, novel, and the-best-in-the-world. Business is all about differentiation and marketing and getting inside customer minds. Even if Soylent was Ensure re-branded, they can still have a business by being "fuel for the tech crowd" instead of "feeding tube fuel" http://www.amazon.com/Nestle-Healthcare-Nutrition-85140100-U... It's all…

Are you serious? The products are substantially different. If you look at the nutritional info for Ensure[1] and Soylent[2] you'll see that Soylent has more calories, more fat, no cholesterol, more sodium, more potassium, less sugar, more protein. Most important, Soylent has a more even distribution of the daily % of vitamins and minerals. If you drink 3 bottles of Ensure you're up to 180% daily value of Vitamin C, 2…

> Most important, Soylent has a more even distribution of the daily % of vitamins and minerals.

Which is actually what you don't want, since the daily % isn't consistent in meaning. In some cases its a target which most people should meet or exceed. It some cases its a target most people should be around. It some cases (e.g., sodium) its nearly the maximum recommended for the majority of the population, and above the maximum recommended for a substantial minority.

> My feeling is also that Soylent measures more and tweaks their formula more.

Soylent is tweaking it more because they are moving it around fairly rapidly to deal with component prices and feedback from unanticipated negative impacts on consumers.

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#109

Post by dragonwriter » Wed, Sep 09, 2015, 9:55 PM UTC

cheshire137 wrote: post #103

cryoshon wrote: post #74

Please stop this culture of insanity, it is destructive. I get it, Soylent is targeting the "100X engineer" crowd who are supposed to be unflappably dedicated near-godlike ubermenschen. I get that people need to telegraph "how busy" they are by constantly talking about it to everyone with ears. I understand that people need to communicate high-value to each other, and do this by referencing how much responsibility th…

> I guess if you're a meta-human weirdo who claims to have no inherent desire to consume tasty food and just wants to "get it out of the way", Soylent is for you. I don't believe you actually exist, though. Here I am, right here! 28-year-old woman, just to give some demographic information. I don't like cooking, I don't want to deal with produce that goes bad before I get around to preparing it. Soylent is a lovely t…

I'm not surprised that there are people that would rather use prepared or quick-mix products than cook on their own.

I'm somewhat surprised that, given the vast array of viable prepared and quick-mix meal products, both shakes and otherwise, that have been on the market much longer than Soylent, that so many of those people think Soylent is something revolutionary. Its clearly a triumph of marketing.

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#110

Post by DanBC » Wed, Sep 09, 2015, 9:55 PM UTC

glesperance wrote: post #69

Really sad to read that this new batch isn't certified gluten free. Eating gluten free is often a struggle for ppl with celiac disease. I'm sure a gluten free soylent would be greatly appreciated by the celiac community! (as least I would!) The way I see it, a gluten free soylent would be my go-to lunch meal when I'm in a hurry or when there are no leftovers.

Ensure complete retail is gluten free so if you wanted a liquid feed you could try that.

http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/products/ensure-complete-r...

I'm not sure it's a great idea and you may want to check with a doctor first.