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This is just a marketing ploy - otherwise, the ingredients and instructions as to how to make it would have been provided for free on the blog. And no, I don't

This is just a marketing ploy - otherwise, the ingredients and instructions as to how to make it would have been provided for free on the blog. And no, I don't buy the excuses that have been made as to why the list of actual ingredients can not be provided.

kkwok 14y ago
Not disagreeing, but a previous post does list the ingredients: http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424 http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424
- Udo 14y ago
  Exactly. This is most likely a marketing ploy, but the ingredient list is there, anybody could mix that up and try it - no magical sauce here. I have to admit it's interesting to follow this experiment, though. As bootstrapped marketing schemes go, I've seen much worse.
  - alex_doom 14y ago
    Marketing for what? There's nothing being sold, he lists the items he uses and amounts. Why would a marketer give away the secret sauce.
    - lutze 14y ago
      He just gives nutritional information, not an ingredients list. In the latest post he mentions that several chemists have figured out how to make his concoction, but he explicitly states he's not making the recipe public yet.
      - Udo 14y ago
        He gves a list of ingredients, each with the precise amount used, doesn't he? I thought that was pretty self-explanatory. Sure, he didn't say where he got them from or how he mixes them, but someone dedicated would be able to figure it out. It's not rocket science, uh, chemistry!
    - Udo 14y ago
      And I like how open he is about it, it was not supposed to be a scathing criticism. There is probably a market for this stuff, because not a lot of people would go through this trouble of producing it themselves.
  - djcapelis 14y ago
    > anyone could mix it up and try it Some people have. He says as much in the blog entry that various folks have let him know they've replicated it and tried it.
bravura 14y ago
You are correct that this does smell. I'm also dubious that this fellow will be able to scale up production without people replicating this at home. Related: I'm sure most of us don't care upon the soylent formulation per se as long as we could easily make our own meal-in-a-shake-form. Does anyone have any suggestions/ideas about how to produce something similar?
- unix-dude 14y ago
  He lists all the ingredients on his blog, and talks about why he chose each one. He also discusses effects he felt when experimenting with the proportion/amount of certain nutrients. There's no "magic" in this at all. http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424 http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424 Thats the link for the ingredients. Blog posts around there discuss some modifications that were made here and there. As for production, I think many things like this can be replicated. However, I'd love to just buy this, or at least a "base version" rather than sourcing all the various nutrients and powders, then measuring/mixing them, etc.
  - patricklynch 14y ago
    If you have a digital scale and some time to read supplement labels, even the measuring/mixing doesn't seem that bad. The whey protein and olive oil you can get anywhere. The maltodextrin means picking up a giant bag from a brewery supply store once every few months. I'm coming up with two scoops of protein, eight scoops of carbs, and a third cup of oil, and a bit under half a gallon of water. After that it's just a teaspoon of salt and a few supplements/multi-vitamins and you're set for the day. He mentioned earlier that it takes about five minutes to prepare the next day's batch, and he doesn't need refrigeration or much in the way of kitchen utensils. That's a fairly tight upper bound on complexity.
unix-dude 14y ago
Maybe, but Im not sure it started off like that. I think the author has definetly started to see real business potential, especially after all the exposure (both here on HN, and in general). That being said, he's probably not a legal expert, and is probably treading carefully (gathering data slowly, not immediately selling the mixture, etc). Personally, I wish him and his future (potenial) business well. Its definetly a product Id buy. Eating healthy (especially when your choices are very restricted, eg school), can be a pain in the ass. Quick, very healthy, potential food replacement (Though, id probably only totally replace meals with it occasionally) sounds really, really great.

kkwok 14y ago

Not disagreeing, but a previous post does list the ingredients: http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424 http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424

Udo 14y ago
Exactly. This is most likely a marketing ploy, but the ingredient list is there, anybody could mix that up and try it - no magical sauce here. I have to admit it's interesting to follow this experiment, though. As bootstrapped marketing schemes go, I've seen much worse.
- alex_doom 14y ago
  Marketing for what? There's nothing being sold, he lists the items he uses and amounts. Why would a marketer give away the secret sauce.
  - lutze 14y ago
    He just gives nutritional information, not an ingredients list. In the latest post he mentions that several chemists have figured out how to make his concoction, but he explicitly states he's not making the recipe public yet.
    - Udo 14y ago
      He gves a list of ingredients, each with the precise amount used, doesn't he? I thought that was pretty self-explanatory. Sure, he didn't say where he got them from or how he mixes them, but someone dedicated would be able to figure it out. It's not rocket science, uh, chemistry!
  - Udo 14y ago
    And I like how open he is about it, it was not supposed to be a scathing criticism. There is probably a market for this stuff, because not a lot of people would go through this trouble of producing it themselves.
- djcapelis 14y ago
  > anyone could mix it up and try it Some people have. He says as much in the blog entry that various folks have let him know they've replicated it and tried it.

bravura 14y ago

You are correct that this does smell. I'm also dubious that this fellow will be able to scale up production without people replicating this at home. Related: I'm sure most of us don't care upon the soylent formulation per se as long as we could easily make our own meal-in-a-shake-form. Does anyone have any suggestions/ideas about how to produce something similar?

unix-dude 14y ago
He lists all the ingredients on his blog, and talks about why he chose each one. He also discusses effects he felt when experimenting with the proportion/amount of certain nutrients. There's no "magic" in this at all. http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424 http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424 Thats the link for the ingredients. Blog posts around there discuss some modifications that were made here and there. As for production, I think many things like this can be replicated. However, I'd love to just buy this, or at least a "base version" rather than sourcing all the various nutrients and powders, then measuring/mixing them, etc.
- patricklynch 14y ago
  If you have a digital scale and some time to read supplement labels, even the measuring/mixing doesn't seem that bad. The whey protein and olive oil you can get anywhere. The maltodextrin means picking up a giant bag from a brewery supply store once every few months. I'm coming up with two scoops of protein, eight scoops of carbs, and a third cup of oil, and a bit under half a gallon of water. After that it's just a teaspoon of salt and a few supplements/multi-vitamins and you're set for the day. He mentioned earlier that it takes about five minutes to prepare the next day's batch, and he doesn't need refrigeration or much in the way of kitchen utensils. That's a fairly tight upper bound on complexity.

unix-dude 14y ago

Maybe, but Im not sure it started off like that. I think the author has definetly started to see real business potential, especially after all the exposure (both here on HN, and in general). That being said, he's probably not a legal expert, and is probably treading carefully (gathering data slowly, not immediately selling the mixture, etc). Personally, I wish him and his future (potenial) business well. Its definetly a product Id buy. Eating healthy (especially when your choices are very restricted, eg school), can be a pain in the ass. Quick, very healthy, potential food replacement (Though, id probably only totally replace meals with it occasionally) sounds really, really great.