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How Soylent Auto-Transcribes Phone Calls to Build a Database of Legal Advice
- kyleblarson 11y agoDidnt have time to read this article. Had friends over and we cooked a nice meal together and had a very pleasant evening. I like it that way.
- joelrunyon 11y ago> "That couldn't be further from the truth. We drink Soylent because it gives us the time to do other things that we love." I find this strange that he acts like food is an obstacle (all of the time). What about the joy of enjoying your food?
- thatswrong0 11y agoThis again... you can drink Soylent and still enjoy food. You can drink it for the times when you just need food but don't need to enjoy it.
- joelrunyon 11y agoMeal replacements have been around forever. Why is soylent better?
- bosdev 11y agoTrue meal replacements which are suitable for long-term use are not widely marketed to consumers. They tend to be available only through medical channels.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- geofft 11y ago1. Why is Ensure unsuitable for long-term use? (It's available at every local supermarket and drugstore, nutritionally complete, and marketed as being suitable for exactly this purpose.) 2. If we're assuming that this is a meal replacement for when you don't want to eat traditional meals, does it matter if it's suitable for long-term use?
- Retra 11y ago"Ensure is intended for supplemental use with or between meals and for interim sole-source nutrition." Soylent is a total food replacement; you don't need to eat anything else at all. It's not supplemental, and it's not interim. If you're not eating it a lot, then no, there isn't any need for Soylent.
- harryjo 11y agoThe difference between Ensure and Soylent isn't that Doylent is more sustainable; it's that Ensure protects its reputation by discouraging potentially unhealthy uses, while Soylent just bluffs to "fake it till they make it"
- geofft 11y agoEnsure is also intended for complete replacement of meals; they just don't market that way in the US to the general public. They do to doctors, and they're more open about this use outside the US. From https://ensure.ca/en/faq https://ensure.ca/en/faq : For how long can I use Ensure®?? How many servings do I need to consume each day to meet my daily needs for good health? Ensure® products deliver complete and balanced nutrition Ensure® products can be used daily. Individual needs depend on many factors — age, gender, level of activity, health status. Please consult your health care professional for details related to your health. Can Ensure® replace a meal? Yes. Ensure® products are complete and balanced, when used in appropriate amounts they can be used to replace meals. Basically, if you're going to do something like switch to Ensure or Soylent or anything as your sole meal source, talk to your doctor first, but if the doctor doesn't object, Ensure is as usable for this purpose as Soylent.
- kylnew 11y agoFrom personal experience with Soylent 2.0, it's more nutritious and filling than other replacements/supplements I've tried. The product seems to place some importance on properly replacing a meal, not just being a vitamin blast.
- afarrell 11y agoSoylent powder doesn't spoil for a year and at a cost of $2, I can make myself breakfast in literally 50 seconds using a faucet, 5cm^3 of chocolate powder, and a blender bottle.
- collyw 11y agoYou should try porridge. Its been around for ages.
- Gigablah 11y agoI don't think you can make porridge in 50 seconds. Unless you're talking about instant porridge. Please don't tell me you're recommending instant porridge.
- collyw 11y agoBeen a while since I made any but I am sure a couple of minutes in a microwave would be enough. OK, not 50 seconds, but not a particularly large amount of time.
- afarrell 11y agoI ate oatmeal for breakfast nearly every morning for 13 years.
- pech0rin 11y agoSo true. The beauty of Soylent is that you get to enjoy food instead of it being a chore.
- hellbanner 11y agoIf you cook in large batches you can also accomplish this.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- detaro 11y agoAssuming you have the infrastructure available to do so. (I personally don't use Soylent or similar products, but I can see the appeal in many situations)
- hellbanner 11y agoI'll have to look up the pricing -- I assumed if you could afford a 100% meal replacement, you could afford to cook.
- detaro 11y agoI meant more along the lines of storage/freezer space for cooking ahead. Price-wise these meal replacements aren't that great.
- Retra 11y agoYou can also live without electricity. It's way more convenient because you don't have to pay bills or worry about electrocuting yourself.
- scardine 11y agoIf you really need to drink an engineered solution it is a symptom of something else. Having to skip or delay a major meal should be a matter of absolute emergency. I guess in the USA lunch is not the major meal, but it is sacred in my side of the planet and I like it like that. I'm a very anxious person, turning off everything for an hour in order to eat well is a very useful ritual and plays a big part on my concept of enjoying life. And I'm really considering moving to a place that has a "ciesta" culture as well. What really matters in life?
- raisedbyninjas 11y agoPersonally it feels depressing and boring to consider shoving plant and animal parts down my maw to be some critical part of a fulfilling life. The fact that some foods have different flavors is about as enthralling as clothing that comes in different colors. Those are both certainly nice features, but they are difficult to get excited about.
- afarrell 11y agoHave you never been in a situation where you were in a rush to go do something but you were hungry and didn't want to be hungry while you did the thing? This means that soylent (which you could make in literally 50 seconds using a blender bottle, soylent powder, and faucet) would be somewhat useful. You'd probably want to add some flavor like chocolate powder though. Myself, I very occasionally get really nervous and anxious and really just feel a bit of a revulsion at chewing and eating food. But, I know that I should eat because to maintain homeostasis. Perhaps you are capable of a sympathetic response to that situation. Soylent has been a good solution for me for those times. Normally, I do enjoy food. I'll admit as a hard-of-smelling person, I probably don't get as much joy as other people, but I do enjoy it. But it is indeed sometimes an obstacle.
- reedlaw 11y agoI have a simpler alternative: * 1 liter milk * 3 large bananas * 1 spoonful peanut butter * 1 scoop of cacao powder Mix it all in a blender and enjoy.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoSimpler =! better. Your 3 bananas are far too many carbs compared to a serving of my Soylet or Ketochow.
- reedlaw 11y agoWe were talking about saving time, not dieting. Actually this type of shake with some added protein powder is ideal for weight gain during strength training. Typically I couldn't finish such a big serving without some exercise to build up appetite.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoI disagree that your simple shake provides the same nutritional benefits as a serving of Soylent, but to each their own.
- nether 11y agoWhy does McDonald's exist?
- JabavuAdams 11y agoMcD french fries give me joy. There's really no other reason to eat them.
- fizixer 11y agoJust curious. Did they let the lawyers know the call is being recorded (it might even be illegal not to do so in some states)? and how did the lawyers react?
- DanBC 11y agoThey use UberConference. I'm guessing that makes it clear that some recording is happening, although the website doesn't say either way. https://www.uberconference.com/features/record_conference_calls https://www.uberconference.com/features/record_conference_ca... EDIT: California is an "all party consent" state - everyone being recorded has to agree to it.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoFrom some quick googling: "California law generally requires a person to obtain consent from all parties to a call before recording the call. See Cal. Penal Code § 630 et seq. Consent can likely be obtained by providing a recording disclosure at the outset of the call."
- johncoogan 11y agoAll recorded calls on UberConference begin with an automated message: "This call is being recorded"
- dajohnson89 11y agoDoctors record your health info too.
- cyounkins 11y agoWait so they have their conversations with legal listened to and transcribed by random people at Rev? Considering the things one usually talks with lawyers about, it may not be super great to share that with random people outside the company.
- will_brown 11y agoAlong these lines, in theory allowing a 3rd party to listen to these conversations waives the attorney client privilege. In practice this would amount to being able to compel REV to testify about these conversations when relevant.
- viggity 11y agonot if Rev is being paid for their work. Think of it like an english to spanish translator, a spanish only illegal immigrant can still expect privilege with their counsel even if translator is there. Just because a third party is involved doesn't automatically waive privilege, it needs to be a third party unrelated to the case.
- will_brown 11y agoThe Courts will look at the precise role of the third party to determine if the privilege has been waived. Obviously, there is a major distinction in using a interpreter, when the interpreter is essential[1] to further the legal representation. Whereas in the Soylent example, REV is not essential to further the representation, for example the lawyer/client could transcribe the conversation themselves and are only using a 3rd party for convenience. [1]State v. Shire, 850 S.W.2d 923 (Mo. Ct. App. 1993) - Because the daughter wasn’t essential in conveying information to the lawyer and wasn’t reasonably necessary to protect her mother’s interests, her presence at the meeting destroyed the privilege.
- jacques_chester 11y agoLawyers typically bill in increments of 6 minutes. So when I had a question for my lawyer, I spent a few minutes polishing it up and sent an email. The response was usually billed for one or two increments. It doesn't require a Rube Goldberg device to turn text into text. And it turns out that good lawyers are good at writing. It's as central to their job as coding is to ours.
- p4wnc6 11y agoThis has not been my experience at all. I've found that a phone call is much more efficient. If permitted, many lawyers I've dealt with, several of whom were clearly the best and most professional, would milk an email or text-based response for quite a lot more, even after being asked to keep it brief.
- jacques_chester 11y agoIf you feel your lawyer is overcharging you, tell them so, complain to the local bar and/or find another lawyer.
- p4wnc6 11y agoComplaining over this kind of issue to local bar will get you absolutely nowhere. I did switch attorneys, two or three times, but they all do this and all assert that all others do it. To boot, in some situations such as family court, switching attorneys can be and often is taken by the judge as a sign that you don't have your shit together well enough to hold down an attorney. Even if you switched for a completely legitimate reason, they can hold it against you and play favorites with the other counsel. This was especially true for a family member of mine going through such a circumstance in a small, rural community where all possible attorneys to hire in the area had close dealings with all of the judicial staff.
- jacques_chester 11y agoOK, you had a bad experience. I've had good experiences. Let's leave it at that.
- jbackus 11y agoThis is a great post. I'd love to hear more about multistage zaps people use. I'd also enjoy a post that talked about different zaps that zapier uses in house.
- chubalub 11y ago#lifehack
- nether 11y agoSoylent seems like an ecommerce dev firm with a food product on the side. This article is more detailed than anything they've released about their actual Soylent formulation development and testing procedure.
- Animats 11y agoThat's what bothers me about those guys. Their product testing is inadequate.[1] Their outsourced fulfillment operation loses orders.[2] They only do a few sales per minute. No major distributor stocks their product. Yet they're always talking about how elaborate their computer operations are. [1] http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/18/9171521/soylent-prop-65-labeling-unsafe-chemicals http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/18/9171521/soylent-prop-65-la... [2] http://readwrite.com/2014/07/22/soylent-food-replacement-bad-customer-service http://readwrite.com/2014/07/22/soylent-food-replacement-bad...
- thatswrong0 11y ago> Their product testing is inadequate.[1] Did we read the same article? That article has _nothing_ to do with their product testing. It has everything to do with Prop 65 and labeling. To quote TFA: > But legalities and press releases aside, from a practical health perspective, none of this may matter: as Soylent notes, Prop 65's guidelines are notoriously stringent, pulling many everyday products into its labeling regime — and outside California, there are other more broadly accepted sets of lead and cadmium guidelines that the product meets. ...? > Their outsourced fulfillment operation loses orders.[2] Present tense.. they _had_ major shipping and supply problems at launch. They don't seem to anymore.
- DanBC 11y agoThey didn't put prop 65 stickers on the product, even though the absurdly low limits of prop 65 required the warning. That might be because they didn't test the product well enough to detect those very low levels; or because they think prop 65 is bogus; or because they just didn't realise it was a thing. None of those are great for a food product. (Although I agree the prop 65 labelling is so strict it becomes worthless.)
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- ashaikh 11y agoThis is actually a really bad idea because of attorney-client privilege issues. By having a third party record the call, Uberconference or Gmail or Rev or Zapier itself, and it being sent forward to several other services, Soylent most likely waived any claim of privilege they may have in the event of litigation. If you are a company considering doing this I would be very cautious. I commend the hack, but unfortunately the legal world of ethics isn't moving as fast as technology.