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Soylent Campaign

campaign.soylent.me

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Re: Soylent Campaign

#381

Post by Afforess »

frozenport wrote: post #211

This is poorly motivated: 1. I can make a Hot Pocket in about 3 minutes. While the microwave is running I can browse my email on my cellphone etc... 2. Some instant food is unhealthy, perhaps healthy instant food is market for disruption? 3. Are we living in a society where people can't stop for 3 minutes to grab a bite to eat!?

1. If I eat a Hot Pocket every day I will shorten my lifespan considerably.

2. Healthy instant food tastes bland or like garbage.

3. Yes. I don't like it, but most of us don't have choices.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#382

Post by d23 »

gojomo wrote: post #155

Per "Poe's Law", I would not rule out the idea that this is an extended prank/art-project. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

There is no doubt this is. The "irrational" improvements to 3.14 (read: pi), the ridiculous name, the complete lack of evidence -- all point to obvious parody.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#384

Post by princess3000 »

d23 wrote: post #372
princess3000 wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also notable is that he ran exactly pi miles. e: AND called that an "irrational improvement." That must be a joke or something...

Which is an irrational number. This has to be a joke. Edit: Okay, you beat me to it :P Edit 2: Are we the same person?

Ha, at first I just noticed that he ran exactly 3.14 and thought "well, that number sounds familiar." Then I thought that "irrational" was a strange way to describe running a longer distance than normal and just put the two together...

On his blog [1] he talks about running 3.14 constantly, so it's possible that he chooses to run pi miles on purpose regularly. Who knows.

[1] (cached) http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kUt_beW...

Re: Soylent Campaign

#385

Post by dragonwriter »

chasing wrote: post #65

"Soylent is perfectly balanced and optimized for your body and lifestyle, meaning it automatically puts you at an optimal weight, makes you feel full, and improves your focus and cognition." Bull-fucking-shit. This is a product made by four twenty-somethings, none of whom appears to have a background in nutrition or any kind of health studies. To trust your health to these people would be fucking stupid. Jesus. Also:…

> Also: They've got to be violating some kind of FDA rules.

Its pretty hard to violate FDA rules when soliciting investment, they'd most likely only run that risk when they start actually marketing product. And even then, the incredibly lax FDA rules around supplements have enabled some of the biggest (and most dangerous) health related scams ever to operate within the rules, so they can probably be okay even then. Usually, this seems to involve placing a disclaimer that the product is not intended to prevent or treat any disease or condition on advertising touting its health benefits (often including explicit claims that the product prevents or treats various diagnosable diseases and/or conditions.)

> But I doubt you can say things like "it automatically puts you at an optimal weight, makes you feel full, and improves your focus and cognition" without having some actual data backing you up.

You'd probably be surprised.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#388

Post by DanBC »

blhack wrote: post #369

Wow there is a lot of hate in this thread... A lot of the arguments here seem to boil down to "Much smarter people are working on this and they haven't solved it, who the hell does this KID think he is?!?" That's pretty depressing for a website that, at least originally, was to help startups talk to one another. Shame on you, hacker news. You're smarter than this. By this logic, never ever trust your data to anybody…

> it appears that he is taking things are already approved from human consumption, and mixing them together.

...and then saying that the nutrients are stable for years.

> A lot of the arguments here seem to boil down to "Much smarter people are working on this and they haven't solved it, who the hell does this KID think he is?!?"

Mavericks can solve big problems. They show their working; they provide a demonstration; they give a proof. Other people then pick at the work to see if there are any problems. That's how science works. We check the sample sizes, we check the stats, we check the confounding factors, we proceed cautiously.

This guy has gone from self-experimentation (and caution about letting other people try it) to a full blown sales pitch full of errors and over-blown claims.

The actual product might not be the TimeCube of nutrition, but the documentation so far is hopeless.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#389

Post by postfuturist »

"... antioxidants, probiotics, and nootropics. It's everything the body needs." - Soylent video

"It's a single cell protein combined with synthetic aminos, vitamins, and minerals. Everything the body needs." - from The Matrix

Re: Soylent Campaign

#390

Post by dragonwriter »

Afforess wrote: post #100
infinitone wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Precisely this. I remember when I first read the creator's blog post and how little it costs to make. Now I come and see it costs about the same amount it costs me to purchase food for a week.

...compared to eating out. His comparison was eating out almost every meal. $230 is cheaper than grocery shopping for a month for a lot of people too.

> $230 is cheaper than grocery shopping for a month for a lot of people too.

Put probably not cheaper than grocery shopping for a month for one person, unless that person has particular food tastes that Soylent isn't going to address.

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