No mention of rats. /snicker/
Soylent on the latest Vice piece
21–30 of 205 posts
Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece
#22Soylent will likely become a billion dollar global enterprise, and even "disrupt" the food industry. It will also ultimately be a failure and frowned upon in modern society. Why? Because a Soylent-saturated world would rob families and loved ones of the ritual and benefits of eating together. Eating together civilizes people. It's emotionally and socially edifying. Studies show that families that dine together stay t…
Except liquid meal replacements already exist (Ensure etc.), and the entire world isn't Valley geeks.
You could eat cheap fast calories everyday but gourmet restaurants still thrive. Not everyone is obsessed with food practicality.
Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece
#23They definitely need two kinds of soylent. One, soylent red, with a different formula and more nutrients for the first few days while our bodies adapt, and then regular soylent green. I say this because everybody complains the first days are really hard on their bodies and nerves. So a smooth transition would make it easier to stick to the plan and reduce drop rates.
I'm pretty sure calling it anything other than Soylent Red and Green would be a really, really good idea. Call it a hunch.
Yeah, I was pretty disheartened in the Motherboard video that the founder liked the name Soylent.
Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece
#24Soylent will likely become a billion dollar global enterprise, and even "disrupt" the food industry. It will also ultimately be a failure and frowned upon in modern society. Why? Because a Soylent-saturated world would rob families and loved ones of the ritual and benefits of eating together. Eating together civilizes people. It's emotionally and socially edifying. Studies show that families that dine together stay t…
Except liquid meal replacements already exist (Ensure etc.), and the entire world isn't Valley geeks. You could eat cheap fast calories everyday but gourmet restaurants still thrive. Not everyone is obsessed with food practicality.
Personally speaking, I think the B2B market makes a lot of sense for Soylent. Especially sales to the military, space agencies, and maybe even white labeling for big food companies.
In the consumer space, sure, you have some "Valley geeks" who see food as more of a burden to be solved than a source of enjoyment or socialization. But you've also got folks like athletes, both professional and amateur (a much bigger consumer market). If (and it's a big if) Soylent satisfies the requirements of a high-intensity training program, then it could take off there. People who are obsessed with performance nutrition tend to place less emphasis on food-as-experience and more emphasis on food as fuel. That's the Soylent psychographic sweet spot.
Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece
#25Wow. Exactly the right response. I would never have paid any attention to Soylent's agreement with a large HACCP-certified manufacturer before, but Vice's story actually made that relevant to me. They might actually pick up customers from this shitstorm. Argh! But, well played.
What shitstorm? The Motherboard piece was overall positive, and didn't have the tongue-in-cheek holier-than-thou tone that most articles about Soylent have had.
Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's right here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6720193
It has practically disappeared and the submitted link was substituted[1]. I think this is a first. I doubt that PG is aware of this type of orchestrated manipulation going on. It is quite dangerous for the credibility of HN. Soylent seems interesting and potentially disruptive. However, it is FOOD and deserves to be put under the microscope. Anyone conniving to make them dodge scrutiny (especially via underhand moves…
YC owns a portion of Soylent. It is not in the best financial interest of YC to portray them in a negative light.
You can't reasonably expect impartial and unbiased information to come from this site, can you? They have a vested interest in seeing the success of their children.
Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece
#27Soylent will likely become a billion dollar global enterprise, and even "disrupt" the food industry. It will also ultimately be a failure and frowned upon in modern society. Why? Because a Soylent-saturated world would rob families and loved ones of the ritual and benefits of eating together. Eating together civilizes people. It's emotionally and socially edifying. Studies show that families that dine together stay t…
> Soylent will likely become a billion dollar global enterprise, and even "disrupt" the food industry.
Have my doubts on this though. One of the things that contribute most to software startups being successful, and the cause for most hugely successful startups having a software component in them, is network effects. You use that software and not another one because, even if there are alternatives, you have vested interests in the shape of user accounts, files, photos, friends... Even hardware startups have software that backs them and creates those vital network effects.
Soylent is not software, nor it has a software component in it. Its formula might be a secret (as compiled programs "are"). Yes, it can build a brand, but how long till Nestle and/or Kraft Foods, with all their marketing muscle, release their own Soylent?
Might be better to sell Soylent for half that billion to one of them :)
Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece
#28The Soylent team continues to impress.
I think this is probably one of the best handled rollouts of a product with so high a potential for controversy. Each issue seems to get addressed rapidly, the company is pursuing a quest for quality, and the product itself is coming together rapidly.
I'm glad to have contributed.
Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece
#29Soylent will likely become a billion dollar global enterprise, and even "disrupt" the food industry. It will also ultimately be a failure and frowned upon in modern society. Why? Because a Soylent-saturated world would rob families and loved ones of the ritual and benefits of eating together. Eating together civilizes people. It's emotionally and socially edifying. Studies show that families that dine together stay t…
> a Soylent-saturated world would rob families and loved ones of the ritual and benefits of eating together.
The Vice writer mentions his compromise with his girlfriend: Every time they would have shared a meal... they do something else together instead. My family eats dinner together nearly every night. But it takes a long time (at least for the slow eating kids). Part of me thinks it would be nice if dinner only took 5 minutes (prep & consumption) and we spent the next hour playing a board game together or reading. Replace one ritual with another.
Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece
#30Soylent will likely become a billion dollar global enterprise, and even "disrupt" the food industry. It will also ultimately be a failure and frowned upon in modern society. Why? Because a Soylent-saturated world would rob families and loved ones of the ritual and benefits of eating together. Eating together civilizes people. It's emotionally and socially edifying. Studies show that families that dine together stay t…
Haven't similar products existed for a while now? I wonder how Soylent compares to a product like Ensure, or other meal-replacement powders / shakes that have been on the market for years already. Is Soylent significantly cheaper, and/or is it better nutritionally?
I think for Soylent to really explode in sales, they should find a way to market it as a cheap weight loss solution or something similar. The mass market loves weight loss products.