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This is a silly take IMO. I love eating and cooking good food. I also sometimes need something healthy on the road or in between classes etc. Vanishingly few pe

This is a silly take IMO. I love eating and cooking good food. I also sometimes need something healthy on the road or in between classes etc. Vanishingly few people replace all food with Soylent. It’s fine as a fill-in between meals.

keiferski 2y ago
As I wrote, it’s not that having a fill-in meal is an issue. It’s the attitude that food and cooking are some kind of unfortunate requirement that should be optimized out of existence - which is the mentality that companies like Soylent put out there, and what their fans want. I think it’s largely a consequence of not having a respect for food, and that mentality is not welcome in places like Japan, France, Italy, etc. where there is a deep cultural respect for food.
- lidavidm 2y ago
  Oh boy. Hope you never run into a CalorieMate or a jelly squeeze packet. Or the stoveless apartments.
  - keiferski 2y ago
    Those are intended for quick meal replacements, not replacements for eating entirely. And stove less apartments are usually for people that eat out, not people that are trying to replace meals with shakes.
- safety1st 2y ago
  Fortunately this mindset is limited to a vanishingly small number of rootless young men who are lost in the scam of "hustle culture" - they are overrepresented on HN, but they are also mostly alone and childless, so unlikely to pass the mindset to the next generation
  - AlexeyBelov 2y ago
    What a weird thing to say. It sounds so passive, like you don't want to have a conversation at all and only make a meta-level comment about other people. And the comment you're making is pretty mean, let's be honest. Do you think you could in theory have a discussion around this subject in a more mentally healthy way?
    - safety1st 2y ago
      I mean, no, probably not. Because the person I replied to was pointing out that there are people who want to completely abandon the ritual of eating meals, which happens to be one of the primary ways the human race has socialized for thousands of years. So if any of those weirdos want to, you know, eat a meal, then sure we could have that discussion over one, but this brings us to the second part of my comment, which is that the number of people who are lunatic enough to think that abandoning the eating of meals is a good idea, is vanishingly small. I've never met one in person. The human race eats meals. The idea that you would optimize meals out of your life is more or less the province of like five antisocial, terminally online dudes. If these five guys decide to withdraw from society, be pariahs and wear hair shirts and all that well it's a free country but don't count me in
- etrautmann 2y ago
  I think this is catastrophizing some cheeky marketing hyperbole. You can have deep respect for food and occasionally drink a Soylent.
  - keiferski 2y ago
    I agree, but 5-10 years ago "Soylent replaces eating" was very much a trendy cultural thing to believe.
    - etrautmann 2y ago
      but really? I was living in SF and drinking soylent in grad school then, and aside from a few maximalists online, nobody I knew ever really thought or wanted that. To me it seemed like dopamine fasting or other silly trends that news outlets will breathlessly write about but everyone else takes in stride as a kinda minor thing they might do occasionally.
      - keiferski 2y ago
        Search for Soylent on HN and you’ll see many topics discussing what I mentioned
        Karrot_Kream 2y ago
        If you read any shaving related Reddit forum you'll end up thinking that cartridge razors are marketing scams that dupe the uninformed and most people are actually just shaving with double-edge razors. In reality millions of people who don't actually care much for the act of grooming other than to hit aesthetic goals will use a cartridge razor because it does a good enough job. You'll find many, many more enthusiastic posts from the former double-edged shaving enthusiasts than the latter cartridge-using realists. You're seeing the same thing with Soylent. My friends who didn't enjoy cooking much before Soylent just had lots of protein bars, TV dinners, and takeout. Now they do the same thing but also drink lots of Soylent. The meal replacement maximalists are loud online because that's the only space they can create consensus in. It's the same reason most loud, minority opinions are overrepresented online.

keiferski 2y ago

As I wrote, it’s not that having a fill-in meal is an issue. It’s the attitude that food and cooking are some kind of unfortunate requirement that should be optimized out of existence - which is the mentality that companies like Soylent put out there, and what their fans want. I think it’s largely a consequence of not having a respect for food, and that mentality is not welcome in places like Japan, France, Italy, etc. where there is a deep cultural respect for food.

lidavidm 2y ago
Oh boy. Hope you never run into a CalorieMate or a jelly squeeze packet. Or the stoveless apartments.
- keiferski 2y ago
  Those are intended for quick meal replacements, not replacements for eating entirely. And stove less apartments are usually for people that eat out, not people that are trying to replace meals with shakes.
safety1st 2y ago
Fortunately this mindset is limited to a vanishingly small number of rootless young men who are lost in the scam of "hustle culture" - they are overrepresented on HN, but they are also mostly alone and childless, so unlikely to pass the mindset to the next generation
- AlexeyBelov 2y ago
  What a weird thing to say. It sounds so passive, like you don't want to have a conversation at all and only make a meta-level comment about other people. And the comment you're making is pretty mean, let's be honest. Do you think you could in theory have a discussion around this subject in a more mentally healthy way?
  - safety1st 2y ago
    I mean, no, probably not. Because the person I replied to was pointing out that there are people who want to completely abandon the ritual of eating meals, which happens to be one of the primary ways the human race has socialized for thousands of years. So if any of those weirdos want to, you know, eat a meal, then sure we could have that discussion over one, but this brings us to the second part of my comment, which is that the number of people who are lunatic enough to think that abandoning the eating of meals is a good idea, is vanishingly small. I've never met one in person. The human race eats meals. The idea that you would optimize meals out of your life is more or less the province of like five antisocial, terminally online dudes. If these five guys decide to withdraw from society, be pariahs and wear hair shirts and all that well it's a free country but don't count me in
etrautmann 2y ago
I think this is catastrophizing some cheeky marketing hyperbole. You can have deep respect for food and occasionally drink a Soylent.
- keiferski 2y ago
  I agree, but 5-10 years ago "Soylent replaces eating" was very much a trendy cultural thing to believe.
  - etrautmann 2y ago
    but really? I was living in SF and drinking soylent in grad school then, and aside from a few maximalists online, nobody I knew ever really thought or wanted that. To me it seemed like dopamine fasting or other silly trends that news outlets will breathlessly write about but everyone else takes in stride as a kinda minor thing they might do occasionally.
    - keiferski 2y ago
      Search for Soylent on HN and you’ll see many topics discussing what I mentioned
      - Karrot_Kream 2y ago
        If you read any shaving related Reddit forum you'll end up thinking that cartridge razors are marketing scams that dupe the uninformed and most people are actually just shaving with double-edge razors. In reality millions of people who don't actually care much for the act of grooming other than to hit aesthetic goals will use a cartridge razor because it does a good enough job. You'll find many, many more enthusiastic posts from the former double-edged shaving enthusiasts than the latter cartridge-using realists. You're seeing the same thing with Soylent. My friends who didn't enjoy cooking much before Soylent just had lots of protein bars, TV dinners, and takeout. Now they do the same thing but also drink lots of Soylent. The meal replacement maximalists are loud online because that's the only space they can create consensus in. It's the same reason most loud, minority opinions are overrepresented online.