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> The population at large has a very poor level of education about food, and Soylent seeks to exploit that very large business opportunity. Conceptually, the a
by pveierland 10y ago
> The population at large has a very poor level of education about food, and Soylent seeks to exploit that very large business opportunity.
Conceptually, the advantages of a product such as Soylent includes long shelf-life, reducing the frequency and time needed to shop food, offering healthy fast-food meals, having a lower carbon footprint and being more sustainable than regular food, reducing the time spent preparing food, being cheaper than other sources of ready-made food (with basis in my own budget). These are not trivial advantages if fully realized, and it seems reductive to reduce the advantages of Soylent to just being a product for people poorly educated about food.
> I would prefer to see more people with an understanding of healthy eating and cooking.
I believe most people who eat healthy basically just follow hand-wavy norms and guidelines about what is considered healthy, e.g. include fish and vegetables in your diet (simplified). Once someone actually tries to engineer a complete diet such as Soylent it becomes apparent how hard it is to guarantee rich completeness. However, in the long run I believe the engineering approach, based on scientific input, is more likely to result in a proper diet. Especially when in the long run a "Soylent version X" can be based on a closed loop with personal body telemetry and customized food mixes based on these sensor readings.
- akamaka 10y agoI agree with you overall, but my different viewpoint comes from witnessing other companies addressing the advantages you've mentioned. Just as trends in the computer industry have been largely led by power users, there are also food "power users". These are people who save time cooking with new equipment (powerful blenders, sous vide, etc), have high quality, freshly-picked food delivered in weekly boxes, have convenient herb gardens, etc. There are more innovations on the horizon (Farmbot, Cinder, etc). Of course, Soylent is still much faster, but I think these "power users" will close the gap in convenience faster than Soylent can close the gap in quality.
- daveFNbuck 10y agoI do not and will not prepare my own food, so it usually takes me at least 30 minutes and $10 to go out and get a meal. When I don't feel like doing that, a bottle of Soylent saves most of that time and money.