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Soylent now accepting Bitcoin for preorders

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Re: Soylent now accepting Bitcoin for preorders

#141

Post by i_am_dead »

6d0debc071 wrote: post #96
jafaku wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Bitcoin a bad idea, and how do we not know what we are doing?

If bitcoin circulation is, in practice, much lower than it's generally believed to be - “We isolated all the large (≥ 50,000 Bitcoins) transactions which were ever recorded in the system, and analyzed how these amounts were accumulated and then spent. We discovered that almost all these large transactions were the descendants of a single large transaction involving 90,000 Bitcoins which took place on November 8th 201…

Things have changed since 2010.

Re: Soylent now accepting Bitcoin for preorders

#142

Post by makomk »

javert wrote: post #118
gruseom wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Big _____" is a Progressive catchphrase [...] used to villify [...] taking away some freedom from the marketplace This all sounds much more ideological to me than the comment to which you are objecting.

Actually, it wasn't particularly. It was intentionally written in very plain, common English, in a way that refers to concrete things, not big ideological abstractions.

"Freedom" and "the marketplace" are concrete things, not big ideological abstractions?

Re: Soylent now accepting Bitcoin for preorders

#143

Post by DanBC »

cLeEOGPw wrote: post #127
mbreese wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I trust Abbott far more than some random startup with zero experience in long-term production of food supplements and replacements. I'm sorry, but living off of a concoction for a few months and then claiming that it is better for you than X is crazy. Look, Soylent may not kill you. It might actually be good for you. But until there have been multiple, years-long studies, this just isn't going to fly. Hell, get some…

I'm willing to take the risk and test it for a conservatives like you.

But that's useless unless it's a large, controlled, randomised, double blind, trial.

So far we have people selling stuff telling us "it's okay".

I'd be really interested to see what the FDA has to say about Soylent. Have any of the Soylent team got legal advice?

Re: Soylent now accepting Bitcoin for preorders

#144

Post by DanBC »

schiffern wrote: post #66
jgrahamc wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I've read that in the past and without being rude I do not consider that to be 'thoughtful'. It's a repetition of what he's said a number of times about his goals for Soylent, but it does not answer my question. He mentions Ensure as follows: "I considered Ensure but found it much too expensive, low calorie, unpalatable, and an ingredient make up that was far from complete or optimal." That does not tell me anyt…

4 bottles of Ensure Complete would only be 1400 Calories/day, vs. 2200 Calories for Soylent. You'd have to drink 6/day, making it $66.43/wk for Ensure Complete (cheapest Amazon price) vs. $52.88/wk for Soylent. Of course, you said that you considered $73.48/wk to be "very close to Soylent pricing". Sure it's in the same order of magnitude, but a 40% increase is nothing to sneeze at.

Ensure Plus is higher calorie.

You don't want the high calorie versions because people are going to be chugging this stuff to avoid feeling hungry.

Re: Soylent now accepting Bitcoin for preorders

#145

Post by mbreese »

cLeEOGPw wrote: post #135
sequoia wrote: post #87

... electrical engineering, computer science and entrepreneurship ... Industrial and Systems engineering. He has worked in finance, procurement, and logistics ...sales, finance, and marketing.... early stage technology companies ... Big Data ... operations and sales ... drives the sales channels ... sales engineer in the desktop video conferencing market ... ...and that's it. So I'm supposed to upend the foundations…

Marketers have used the fake "experts" card so extensively, that it diminished the value of the opinion of the expert to near zero. He chooses fundamentally pure approach of giving the actual details of the product to you to judge. The information is there, read it, analyze the books used by the medics and nutritionists and judge by yourself. If you feel the need of an opinion of an expert, you are willingly trusting…

Experts have spent years studying their field. Sure, the information and books are all there for you to learn from. Hell, if you spend enough time at it, you might be an expert too. But do you really expect someone to sit and spend the time required to truly grok nutrition, health, medicine, etc? Oh, and how do you sift through the information to determine what is true and what isn't?

The information that experts have is probably available to most anyone, but where experts really have the advantage is that they have the proper context and training to correctly interpret and apply that knowledge.

It's one thing to try this stuff out on your own body. When you start convincing others to try it too is when it gets dangerous.

Re: Soylent now accepting Bitcoin for preorders

#146

Post by nazgulnarsil »

polymatter wrote: post #140
zhemao wrote: post #47

Every time I see a Soylent article on HN I hope that it's all just a sick joke that will soon be revealed as an elaborate hoax and forgotten about. Why the hell would anyone in their right mind base their entire diet off of some liquid concoction made up by some random guy who is clearly not a nutritionist? Why don't you guys just learn to eat a healthy and balanced diet?

"just learn to eat a healthy and balanced diet". Can anyone recommend an authoritative compendium of what that is please? Preferably linking to multi-year statistically significant studies that take into account the obvious externalities ( local weather, amount of exercise, genetics, time of eating etc). I don't really want to make nutrition research another time-consuming hobby, but I don't want to unnecessarily kil…

I see comments like this a lot, and I think it's pretty disingenuous to jump from the garbage diet most people have and claim the only worthwhile improvement is one supported by rock solid conclusive scientific support. Nutrition science is in a pretty bad state, but that doesn't mean you should continue eating baconators.

Re: Soylent now accepting Bitcoin for preorders

#147

Post by 6d0debc071 »

i_am_dead wrote: post #141
6d0debc071 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If bitcoin circulation is, in practice, much lower than it's generally believed to be - “We isolated all the large (≥ 50,000 Bitcoins) transactions which were ever recorded in the system, and analyzed how these amounts were accumulated and then spent. We discovered that almost all these large transactions were the descendants of a single large transaction involving 90,000 Bitcoins which took place on November 8th 201…

Things have changed since 2010.

Study wasn't done in 2010. That's just when that transaction shell game showed up from the perspective of the study. Do you have an up to date statistical analysis of the bitcoin transaction record to share?

Re: Soylent now accepting Bitcoin for preorders

#148

Post by phaemon »

scythe wrote: post #126
retrogradeorbit wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

re: 4. Deflation is bad for the asset rich, but good for the asset poor. Inflation is good for the rich and bad for the poor. Those who usually spout the 'inflation is better than deflation' argument are the rich. The argument that inflationary expectation is better than deflationary expectation because during period of deflation purchasing stops because 'it will be cheaper tomorrow' is flawed because such periods of…

No, deflation is bad, period, for the economic actors who depend on deflationary currencies, and this is verified simply by looking at pretty much any historical instance of deflation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflation#Historical_examples Notice how nothing good ever comes of deflation? That should be a hint. I would be highly suspicious of the unsourced "In Ireland" section: http://byline.timetric.com/2010/11/2…

> No, deflation is bad, period, for the economic actors who depend on deflationary currencies,

USD (or GBP or AUD etc) are deflationary relative to technological items, such as computers. By your theory, no-one should buy such items. In reality, they do.

I think this shows your theory is wrong.

Re: Soylent now accepting Bitcoin for preorders

#149

Post by penetrarthur »

sowhatquestion wrote: post #67
ynniv wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that the interest comes from the radical branding. "Ensure" is associated with hospitals and the aging population, whereas "Soylent" is historically associated with dystopia and recently with some ambitious kids. One exit would be to create an energy drink-like (young target market) product that's just a re-branded Ensure. But if you're currently using Ensure, perhaps you know of other ways to improve on it…

Have you tried Ensure Complete? I got so impatient while waiting for my Soylent order to arrive that I actually did. First of all, it's loaded with sugar, and lacks Soylent's heavy dose of fiber to balance out the glycemic index. Result: sugar rush followed by a nasty crash. Secondly, it lacks some of Soylent's extras like creatine and MCT fats. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it's expensive: it would be almos…

Creatine? Creatine is not even absorbed unless you do a strength workout several times a week. And it takes some for your stomach to get used to it.

Re: Soylent now accepting Bitcoin for preorders

#150

Post by MDS100 »

penetrarthur wrote: post #149
sowhatquestion wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried Ensure Complete? I got so impatient while waiting for my Soylent order to arrive that I actually did. First of all, it's loaded with sugar, and lacks Soylent's heavy dose of fiber to balance out the glycemic index. Result: sugar rush followed by a nasty crash. Secondly, it lacks some of Soylent's extras like creatine and MCT fats. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it's expensive: it would be almos…

Creatine? Creatine is not even absorbed unless you do a strength workout several times a week. And it takes some for your stomach to get used to it.

Oh god no http://examine.com/supplements/Creatine/
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