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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

#931

Post by ckozlowski »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #882
huac wrote: post #757

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like there's asymmetrical information, a great place for a startup to break into. Or create a better marketplace for seeds!

The question is there really anything to "disrupt" and is the market worth it for a startup? I live on a horse farm and as a result, need to buy hay. Our main "hay guy" is a farmer and his son who lives about 1/2 hour away, has great prices and charges a low fee (usually: sometimes he doesn't bother charging) for delivery. There are online hay markets, and Craigslist. They don't bother with any of that. They just ask…

Good story. =)

So much success in business is still meeting face to face with people, building interpersonal connections, and performing classic networking. When I'm mentoring younger family members and friends, I stress this a lot.

I'm not knocking e-commerce, but you cannot underestimate the power that a friendly 5 minute conversation has.

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

#932

Post by kafkaesq »

victorhooi wrote: post #930

I found Soylent incredibly useful recently when I went through a bout of gastro. It was easy to keep down, and this way I knew I was at least getting some nutrients in. I don't use Soylent as a day-to-day meal. I use it when I am rushing around, and the alternative is McDonalds. The way I see it. 1. It's a fixed 500 calorie intake 2. It's reasonably balanced nutritionally 3. It doesn't have useless junk I don't need…

My question to you is - do you think KFC or McDonalds would have these secret nutrients?

Beats me. But at least you're placing Soylent alongside its actual competitors.

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

#933

Post by ckozlowski »

ghostly_s wrote: post #804
mhb wrote: post #716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

polymyth?

Just plain polymath will do fine, seeing as the last time anyone could make legitimate claim to this title was probably 500 years ago.

I agree with you in principle that they're rather rare. But there's been a few in that time-span.

The most recent that comes to mind? Read about Bruce Dickinson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Dickinson

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

#934

Post by pmyjavec »

"Meant to be mixed with water or other liquids, the powder has enough fats, carbohydrates and other nutrients to replace a traditional meal, according to the company. People looking for a quick fix, such as software programmers in Silicon Valley, have become devotees."

This is one of the saddest things I've read in a long time, I'm not sure if people actually do this but it sounds really sad. If you don't have energy to prepare some food, or find a healthy meal, you're burned out, broke or just lazy, probably burned out. I know this because I've been there.

I've read from multiple sources that ~45 million Americans go hungry [1], there is no reason to believe Silicon Valley is exempt from these figures. Are people just substituting Soylent for real meals because they can't afford proper food?

America sounds like a really lousy place lately and for the most part, the tech industry doesn't sound like it's helping.

1. http://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/impact-of-hu...

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

#935

Post by pmyjavec »

ckozlowski wrote: post #931
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #882

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is there really anything to "disrupt" and is the market worth it for a startup? I live on a horse farm and as a result, need to buy hay. Our main "hay guy" is a farmer and his son who lives about 1/2 hour away, has great prices and charges a low fee (usually: sometimes he doesn't bother charging) for delivery. There are online hay markets, and Craigslist. They don't bother with any of that. They just ask…

Good story. =) So much success in business is still meeting face to face with people, building interpersonal connections, and performing classic networking. When I'm mentoring younger family members and friends, I stress this a lot. I'm not knocking e-commerce, but you cannot underestimate the power that a friendly 5 minute conversation has.

I dare say this is probably what separates very successful people from the rest.

It really is not what you know, but who you know, even in 2016.

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

#936

Post by Vivtek »

wcchandler wrote: post #738
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…

This is definitely something I'm facing. I have a pretty deep interest in farming and have a bunch of approaches for "disrupting" it. But you know what my hangups are? Penetrating the culture and getting involved with the industry. Case in point -- where's the best place to buy zoysia seeds? Amazon? eBay? Some random mom and pop place with a ecommerce page? No. The best place to go is to "Bill" who is friends of frie…

Yes. Come to Puerto Rico, where I'm working in coffee. Never in my life have I had so much human contact.

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

#937

Post by WizzleKake »

warcher wrote: post #906
WizzleKake wrote: post #897

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He doesn't have a citation because he's wrong.

But I do, sunshine. Do you?

Your citation is about starch. A better citation in support of your assertion https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/71495

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

#938

Post by CPLX »

n72 wrote: post #837
yolesaber wrote: post #824

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite is when he talks about his enlightened post-kitchen lifestyle. "I think it was a bit presumptuous for the architect to assume I wanted a kitchen with my apartment and make me pay for it. My home is a place of peace. I don’t want to live with red hot heating elements and razor sharp knives. That sounds like a torture chamber." Did this dude just leave the stove on all the time and keep the knives pointed u…

Yeah, so presumptuous of the architect to assume he'd want a kitchen. I'll bet this architect also dared to assume he'd want a toilet.

Looks clear now however that opting for the toilet was a prescient move.

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

#939

Post by CydeWeys »

eropple wrote: post #295
cknoxrun wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have two young kids and a startup. The idea that I should view each meal as an opportunity to be enjoyed is honestly a pipe dream right now. I enjoy as many of my meals as I can with my family. But when the kids are sick or I'm running behind and have a meeting, I grab a soylent and I feel like it's a lot healthier than picking up sugary junk or other alternatives.

Soylent has nine grams of sugar per serving. It is sugary junk.

9g of sugar for an entire meal isn't that much. A bottle of Coca-Cola has 67.5g of sugar in it, for comparison. An Apple has 19g.

Your expectations of how much sugar people should eat are set unrealistically low.

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

#940

Post by CydeWeys »

Nursie wrote: post #537
rosstex wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I use an e-cig Why bother getting healthy in one aspect of your life if you're going to trash it in another?

How is using an e-cig trashing your health?

There have been many studies showing that they are harmful to your health. Not as bad as cigarettes, but still bad.
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