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Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

latimes.com

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Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#711

Post by lexhaynes »

arcadeparade wrote: post #697
eriknstr wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least he's been eating his own product almost exclusively when at home according to that blog post. This gave me a positive impression at the start of the blog post and I was agreeing with what he said initially, but then it went downhill. I would not want to get rid of my kitchen and I would absolutely never replace my food with Soylent, especially now that I've heard of all the people getting sick from it. Also,…

The prion disease rumours circulating on Twitter about Soylent are really disturbing.

Can you elaborate on these rumors?

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#712

Post by dibstern »

kelseydh wrote: post #496
tedmielczarek wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silicon Valley is littered with the corpses of overvalued cautionary tales.

The real measure of success is whether the company becomes a cautionary tale before or after its exit. Just ask Marc Cuban.

If you're aiming for a failed company and a pile of cash that makes you feel empty inside, or just a failed company, you're on the right track.

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#713

Post by soundwave106 »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #161
djsumdog wrote: post #11

I'm really amazed by all the supporters on here. When I first heard about Soylent, I thought it was a terrible terrible idea. I mean, there's so much to food. It's not just eating it, it's all the flavours and ingredients and cooking with friends and loved ones and parties and such. I'm guessing most people on here use it as a supplement + regular food, but when I saw it originally, it seemed like it was intended to…

There's a niche that Soylent has been really helpful in, that pretty much everyone seems to have ignored so far (including Soylent-the-company, who I sent an email to regarding this and received back a form letter response that hadn't had all of its fields filled in). Backpacking, hiking, search and rescue, hunting, anything outdoors. I carry an unopened package of Soylent powder in my SAR pack and I've been glad I h…

Generally speaking it seems like energy bars targeting the outdoors crowd come in bar form. I can see that... from my perspective a bar's easier to lug around in a backpack compared to something you need to add water to.

That said I agree in another aspect... I'm actually surprised I couldn't find more MRE (not just energy-granola type) bars that specifically market to the outdoor crowd on Google, especially considering things like ultralight backpacking becoming more popular. I could only find one offhand (http://www.greenbelly.co/). Maybe I'm missing more, but it does seem like there would be more of a market for this sort of thing.

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#714

Post by uryga »

welanes wrote: post #554
n72 wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The founder of Soylent clearly believes he's an expert in many, many fields: http://robrhinehart.com/?p=1331 BTW, anyone know a good word for this attitude? I wouldn't call it hybris, though it's closely related. It's a mix of arrogance, over confidence, ignorance, plus more and very prevalent in SV.

> BTW, anyone know a good word for this attitude? Got you, brah - Dilettantism: a person having a superficial interest in an art or field of knowledge without investing the usually required effort. See also: dabbler .

not trying to make a fuss out of it, but i feel like using "brah" - assuming the users gender - is something we should try to avoid. unless you know the poster, in that case disregard this.

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#715

Post by soyiuz »

jcheng wrote: post #283
soyiuz wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm aware of the novel. You are missing the point a bit, aren’t you? It wasn't about the origin of the word. What does one make of a company which chooses to name its product after a darkly dystopian piece of fiction?

No, the company/product name is inspired by the book, not the movie. Which means they're not sinister, just oblivious. https://faq.soylent.com/hc/en-us/articles/201541809-Why-is-i...

Fair enough, but they must have known about the film. A huge chunk of my family perished in the Holocaust. I therefore don't find "dark humor" about forceful mass euthanasia terribly funny.

At the very least, using that name shows a measure of immaturity on the part of company's leadership and makes me frankly question their judgment in other matters. Recall for example their early struggles with health and safety inspections.

I am hoping to be constructive here, in case someone from Soylent is reading. The name is offensive to some people: why lose even one customer over a clever cultural reference? Why willfully associate your product with population control and cannibalism?

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#716

Post by mhb »

welanes wrote: post #554
n72 wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The founder of Soylent clearly believes he's an expert in many, many fields: http://robrhinehart.com/?p=1331 BTW, anyone know a good word for this attitude? I wouldn't call it hybris, though it's closely related. It's a mix of arrogance, over confidence, ignorance, plus more and very prevalent in SV.

> BTW, anyone know a good word for this attitude? Got you, brah - Dilettantism: a person having a superficial interest in an art or field of knowledge without investing the usually required effort. See also: dabbler .

polymyth?

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#717

Post by relics443 »

n72 wrote: post #477
slg wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the biggest flaws of the tech industry is the belief that being a tech expert is enough to disrupt other industries in which they don't have any expertise. Sometimes they get lucky and it works despite something like Uber's or Airbnb's total ignorance of the law. Sometimes it fails like with numerous cryptocurrency companies relearning why the finance industry has so many dang regulations. Seems like Soylent i…

The founder of Soylent clearly believes he's an expert in many, many fields: http://robrhinehart.com/?p=1331 BTW, anyone know a good word for this attitude? I wouldn't call it hybris, though it's closely related. It's a mix of arrogance, over confidence, ignorance, plus more and very prevalent in SV.

I wouldn't call it hybris either :-p

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#718

Post by DanBC »

d0lph wrote: post #589
DanBC wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ensure is not intended to be used as a complete nutrition source, Why did Soylent promote it like that? When did that message change? On the front page at Soylent they have "We engineer foods that offer complete nutrition, value, and convenience." -- here "complete nutrition" means it can be used as a sole source of nutrition. On their about page they say "Soylent™ is a pioneer in food technology, producing conveni…

Ensure is not made by Soylent.

Sorry, yes, I made a stupid error.

Ensure is most assuredly designed to used as a sole source of nutrition. This happens in hospitals every day where it's used in naso-gastric feeding, sometimes against the patient's wishes. It's used in prisons as a naso gastric feed on hunger striking prisoners. It's used in hospitals for ill people.

The makers of Ensure have a wide range of products, many of which are designed to be sole-source of nutrition products.

The fact they don't advertise these to the general public as sole source of nutrition products just means they're a bit more responsible than Soylent.

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#719

Post by wosos »

uryga wrote: post #714
welanes wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> BTW, anyone know a good word for this attitude? Got you, brah - Dilettantism: a person having a superficial interest in an art or field of knowledge without investing the usually required effort. See also: dabbler .

not trying to make a fuss out of it, but i feel like using "brah" - assuming the users gender - is something we should try to avoid. unless you know the poster, in that case disregard this.

Got it brah

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#720

Post by ddeck »

delecti wrote: post #564
eriknstr wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least he's been eating his own product almost exclusively when at home according to that blog post. This gave me a positive impression at the start of the blog post and I was agreeing with what he said initially, but then it went downhill. I would not want to get rid of my kitchen and I would absolutely never replace my food with Soylent, especially now that I've heard of all the people getting sick from it. Also,…

That gizmodo article's only "source" of nutritionists is from this article [1] (another article on the same site). That article's only source of nutritionists is someone who just called them up before Soylent was even on the market, and while none of those nutritionists had examined the product. Many cats and dogs will eat the same food source almost exclusively for most of their lives without any ill effect. Obvious…

In addition, I'd also point out that the term "nutritionist" doesn't even mean anything is most jurisdictions, as highlighted by the following anecdote:

"A demonstration of the ease in which it is possible to become an accredited nutritionist can be seen in Dr Ben Goldacre's successful application to have his dead cat Hettie accredited as a certified professional member of the American Association of Nutritional Consultants" [1]

I'd typically listen to what a Dietitian has to say about nutrition, but not anyone calling themselves a nutritionist.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutritionist#Regulation_of_the...

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