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Soylent on the latest Vice piece

blog.soylent.me

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Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece

#61

Post by StavrosK »

md224 wrote: post #54
contextual wrote: post #10

Soylent 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…

> I'm glad to see so many people disagree with me. It means I'm on the right track. Does anyone else find this "first they ignore you" style of belief-reinforcement to be vaguely troubling? Don't get me wrong, you shouldn't just believe your critics without further inquiry, but the presence of critics shouldn't be used as supporting evidence in and of itself . You risk creating a kind of insular belief system where a…

Very true. You can't use the fact that someone has something bad to say about you to actually improve your perceived value. It's strictly[1] more probable that you're worse if there is criticism than if there isn't.

[1] EDIT: as pasquinelli noted, I didn't actually mean "strictly" here, I meant >=. Also, pasquinelli, you've been hellbanned.

Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece

#62

Post by cgh »

Eleutheria wrote: post #7

They 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.

Speaking of multiple Soylent versions, I would go further than that. It would also be nice to see a "protein-enhanced" version for power athletes and actually athletes in general. Right now, I believe the male formulation is ~120 grams (that was the beta version anyway, exact amount not publicly available yet). Worse, it's plant protein. I'd pay more for a high-protein whey isolate version.

Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece

#63

Post by fleitz »

XorNot wrote: post #18
contextual wrote: post #10

Soylent 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…

People keeping bringing this up. What is so difficult about the concept that not everyone wants to, or even can, cook meals that are nutritionally suitable, healthy or even intended to be consumed collectively - all the time?

Imagine people said that you could save time and money by replacing friends with Facebook. Or you could stop walking a buy a segway.

Soylent appeals to exactly those people. If we wanted to live like this we'd just buy a bag of rice and a box of vitamins. We all understand that it's technically possible to use soylent, just that like replacing all your friends with Facebook, or riding a segway, it's social suicide.

Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece

#64

Post by PhasmaFelis »

contextual wrote: post #10

Soylent 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…

> I'm glad to see so many people disagree with me. It means I'm on the right track.

What? No it doesn't. The rest of your post was thought-provoking, but this "teenage forum troll with a wounded ego" act drags the whole thing down. I don't recommend repeating it if you want people to take you seriously.

Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece

#65

Post by KevinEldon »

OoTheNigerian wrote: post #14
tptacek wrote: post #5

Earlier 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…

Soylent is a food, like the McDonald's McRib sandwich, the Baconator from Wendy's, the Denny's Grand Slam Breakfast, and the delicious beef tacos from my local Mexican restaurant. Why does Soylent need more scrutiny than any of these or the hundreds of thousands of other food products on the market today?

Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece

#66

Post by foobarqux »

jonnathanson wrote: post #24
nether wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 con…

Maybe they should be a Herbalife and do multi-level marketing.

Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece

#67

Post by lambda »

jimmar wrote: post #12
contextual wrote: post #10

Soylent 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…

I cook breakfast for my kids every morning. We eat together every night. For lunch, I'm at work and I typically microwave some junk and get on with more important things. For me, it'd be nice to have another solution for the mid-day meal. So, I've bought in for a trial. I'm not expecting it to be a 100% replacement for regular food. My hunch is that most people will not replace 100% of their food with soylent.

Why don't you just buy Ensure or Carnation Instant Breakfast? They already exist and are well known, that you can buy anywhere. Or make yourself a bowl of oatmeal. Or eat leftovers from the night before.

I think that the only reason that anyone's interested in Soylent is the current startup/crowdfunding bubble hype, not because it's actually anything particularly new. Soylent is to Ensure as Groupon is to coupons. Before the hype, on select groups (people who were too sick to eat, middle-aged housewives) would be into each of them, but once you add the startup/crowdfunding/Internet angle, all of a sudden a bunch of 20 somethings take a fascination in something that they otherwise would have sneered at.

Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece

#68

Post by gfodor »

contextual wrote: post #10

Soylent 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…

false dichotomy

Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece

#69

Post by Sargos »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #42
nether wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Where would you rather eat on the go? Mcdonalds? Or a Soylent vending machine? I've had enough Mcdonalds for this lifetime. Bring on the Soylent vending machines!

Hmm, delicious cheeseburger or tasteless goop in a can? That's a tough one.

Maybe my sarcasm detector is off but I don't see how this is a real question.

Re: Soylent on the latest Vice piece

#70

Post by gfodor »

lambda wrote: post #67
jimmar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cook breakfast for my kids every morning. We eat together every night. For lunch, I'm at work and I typically microwave some junk and get on with more important things. For me, it'd be nice to have another solution for the mid-day meal. So, I've bought in for a trial. I'm not expecting it to be a 100% replacement for regular food. My hunch is that most people will not replace 100% of their food with soylent.

Why don't you just buy Ensure or Carnation Instant Breakfast? They already exist and are well known, that you can buy anywhere. Or make yourself a bowl of oatmeal. Or eat leftovers from the night before. I think that the only reason that anyone's interested in Soylent is the current startup/crowdfunding bubble hype, not because it's actually anything particularly new. Soylent is to Ensure as Groupon is to coupons. Be…

Ensure tastes like shit. If Soylent tastes reasonably OK, and has stronger guarantees that it can be a true meal replacement than supplements like Ensure, then sign me up.
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