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Soylent now accepting Bitcoin for preorders
- mrbannerjee 13y agoirony is dead
- ballard 13y agoAll it takes is for a nutritionist to come in, do something better and open-source. Squish
- nazgulnarsil 13y agoOpen source, made from whole foods, Soylent Orange: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjA38cUd4BZBdGZYM012N0JZTzEtVk05MVF4dlZyZ2c#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjA38cUd4BZBdGZ... I guess I'm going to write up an explanation and justification based on my review of nutrition research at some point. But it's not like it's monetizeable, so I lack motivation.
- ballard 13y agoOh nice! =)
- ballard 13y agoThere's always money that can be made, even if it's a "commodity" by being a knowledge person / service provider. By open sourcing, that's a signal of so much confidence on a mfgr's part that people would stick with a particular brand the existence of a recipe which can be easily replicated. Most people aren't going to bother. Knock-offs can come in and try, but probably aren't going to dent brand-affinity. Many people, especially high income people, would gladly pay for the convenience of ready-to-go product.
- anonymoushn 13y ago> Many people, especially high income people, would gladly pay for the convenience of ready-to-go product. I'll second this. I've used the linked formula off and on, but there's not a significant difference in convenience between using it and getting food elsewhere. The mixture seems to change within a few hours of being made in a way that has not encouraged me to continue consuming it, so I have not tried preparing it in bulk. Assuming there isn't a way to make it remain appetizing for a few days after making it, it seems to be only about as convenient as weekly bulk cooking of chicken/rice/eggs/veggies/dishes that combine these things. If nazgulnarsil has made large batches of it, though, I'd love to hear about it :)
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- ballard 13y agoShitty mobile pix... Store-brand ingredients and nutrition info: http://screencast.com/t/KhqgkXT73Ofe http://screencast.com/t/KhqgkXT73Ofe Major-brand: http://screencast.com/t/KhqgkXT73Ofe http://screencast.com/t/KhqgkXT73Ofe
- zhemao 13y agoEvery 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?
- JoshTriplett 13y agoI'd tend to expect that as this becomes more popular, they'll get some nutritionists on board. That doesn't mean it's completely insane for people to try it before that point. Personally, I don't want to be an early adopter of this (I don't like to mix "bleeding edge" and health), but I'm quite interested. And to answer your last question: the hope is that this is a healthy and balanced diet.
- zhemao 13y agoBlegh, maybe eventually, but I doubt it. We can already eat healthy and balanced diets today. No need to wait until they perfect some formula. I know some people might want to use this just for a quick bite (er, slurp?) when they're in a rush, but the creator's original post indicated that he was consuming soylent for every meal because, for some reason, he found the act of chewing to be somewhat tiresome. Are soylent fans just so busy that they don't have time to eat a good meal each day? If so, you may want to rethink your choices in life. Slow down, take things easier, enjoy life's simple pleasures. Building that game-changing app or chasing VC money can wait until after dinner.
- JoshTriplett 13y agoSounds like you're not in the target market, then, because you're attached to the concept of a meal. Don't assume that anyone who is in the target market has something wrong with them and needs to "rethink [their] choices in life". The issue isn't "so busy", it's "better things to do with that time". Total up the amount of time you spend shopping for food, preparing food, storing food, and eating food. Are you saying you can't think of any better uses for that time? Also note that making meal consumption optional doesn't prevent you from partaking in it as a social occasion whenever you want. But in general, the target market for this considers the need to consume food, much like the need to sleep, an annoying biological requirement rather than a feature. Patches welcome.
- jgrahamc 13y agoJust as Soylent is disrupting the traditional food industry Huh? I've asked this before and never got an answer. How is Soylent different from Ensure Complete? Is it cheaper? Better made? Easier to order? Tastes better? Better for me? Higher quality? Because if it isn't really any different then what Soylent will need to do is market better than those other companies. Because I'd definitely trust Abbott with my health over random start up with indistinguishable product. You see I'm actually interested in things like this as a 'meal replacement'. I quite often drink chocolate milk instead of eating lunch and I can buy nutritionally complete things like Ensure Complete. So, what makes Soylent special?
- billybob255 13y agoIt seems like it's purely marketing to the Silicon Valley/quantified self crowd.
- foobarbazqux 13y agoIt has an outstandingly good name and some quirky, viral Steve Pavlina-like self-experiments by the founder.
- alainmeier 13y agoHere's a very thoughtful response from Rob, the creator of Soylent answering your very question: http://discourse.soylent.me/t/comparing-soylent-to-existing-nutritional-products/431/7 http://discourse.soylent.me/t/comparing-soylent-to-existing-... tldr; There's room in the market for more than one non-solid dietary product, the goal of Soylent is to be a complete alternative that supports an active life rather than something that just lets you survive, ensure is expensive and low calorie.
- jgrahamc 13y agoYes, 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 anything about Soylent. Sure, he wants to make it cheaper. Can he? About a month ago I posted this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5875246 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5875246 The pricing is very close between Soylent and Ensure Complete. Abbott claims you can live long term on it etc. My suspicion is that he's comparing Soylent with the common consumer "Ensure" product which is relatively low-calorie etc.
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- cuttooth 13y agoA bad idea run by someone who has no clue about what he's doing combined with another bad idea supported by people who have no clue about what they're doing? Sign me up.
- jafaku 13y agoHow is Bitcoin a bad idea, and how do we not know what we are doing?
- betterunix 13y ago1. Bitcoin has no rigorous security definition. 2. Bitcoin can be "attacked" (for some vague notion of what it means to attack a system that has no security definition) in polynomial time. 3. The economics of Bitcoin are extremely suspect and based on a poorly developed economic model, supported by neither the Austrian school nor by modern monetary theory. This is probably the underlying cause of the lack of a security definition, as the security definition of a digital cash system will almost certainly be driven by the system's economic model. These issues have been covered ad nauseam by many people, and have been largely dismissed by the Bitcoin community. All the while we have seen increasing amounts of energy sunk into Bitcoin mining, we have seen a major block chain fork that left transactions in question, and we have seen wild fluctuations in the value of Bitcoin currency.
- jafaku 13y ago1. What do you mean? 2. Countries can be attacked too. I don't know what your point is here. If bitcoin survives its infancy, it could become more resilient than any other currency. 3. Could you explain it in practical terms? Because as long as it works, why should I care about what theorists say? Bitcoin's creator said himself that it was an experiment, and rightly so, we have never seen anything like Bitcoin taking off before. Seems like he nailed it on his design. Yeah, I have seen a lot of people raging. How is that evidence of anything, other than fear of the unknown?
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- dictum 13y agoI have a lot to learn from the whey protein industry. They've managed to convince people who have never stepped foot in a gym to drink the old whey and maltodextrin concoction and call it a revolution.
- kazagistar 13y agoLast I heard they were removing the whey protein in favor of non-animal products. Also, the idea is that you can literally never eat anything other then Soylent, and have complete nutrition for an active lifestyle.
- throwawayyyz 13y agoSorry, but I can never trust something made for human consumption by the guy who wrote this: http://robrhinehart.com/?p=572 http://robrhinehart.com/?p=572 (especially the Hormones, Antibiotics and Processed Food section).
- ballard 13y agoSeems to be a totally incoherent braindump of every populist psuedo-fear, similar to a political stump speech. The only half-way valid point is on organic greenwashing.
- nazgulnarsil 13y agoIt's a list of myths, with the thesis that things are getting better. Try some reading comprehension.
- mikemoka 13y agoHow is it possible that a fixed diet may fit every different lifestyle? I mean, would soylent be enough for people going to gym frequently? would it be too much for people always working at home?
- babby 13y agoBasically the formula is supposed to be customizable. Ie. more protein for body builders etc. If it becomes big, which, I guess is possible, it only makes sense for the Soylent community to hack away. Im thinking it may evolve into few solid recipes that can be mass-distributed and then for those who want fine grained control they can get the separate ingredients/supplements themselves and either modify an existing recipe or create one from scratch. This whole thing would be pretty stupid-er if it was only going to be one recipe.
- threepipeproblm 13y agoIt's made of BITS.
- sequoia 13y ago... 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 of my health & body based on the... "research" of a bunch of 20 something electrical engineers & marketers? I don't want my body to be "disrupted", I don't wish for my health to "fail fast." This is not a photosharing app you're building. I find it profoundly bizarre and irresponsible that these people are recommending a total dietary replacement and they don't have single nutritionist or even anyone with a medical background on staff. Soylent team: you are MARKETERS, not nutritionists! Go disrupt something that either a) has fewer potential disastrous consequences or b) you actually know something about. on the other hand USian diets in many quarters are so bad that this stuff can't be much worse. :) But seriously, even for the veneer of legitimacy, hire a nutritionist! The lack of one makes me think you couldn't find one who would touch the project with a 10 foot pole.
- SCdF 13y agoScary right? Great name though. I imagine it will succeed on that alone. (where succeed means "accrue money and and mind-share")
- cLeEOGPw 13y agoAre you really concerned about health of people who otherwise eat food that is PROVEN to be extremely unhealthy, or the idea of drinking nothing but one-of-a-kind liquid is so alien to you that you can't believe it could actually work?
- cLeEOGPw 13y agoMarketers 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 any potential scamer with the "nutritionist" or "doctor" title. Those experts are not some all-knowing gods that can single-handedly approve as safe, or disprove as harmful. They are the same people with the same access to information you and me has. And since nobody has experience with that kind of products, opinion of people who have given some title by someone is not much more valuable than anyone else who learns about nutrition himself.
- jhuckestein 13y agoI find it surprising that so many people here are reluctant to try soylent and afraid to "risk their health" because it is made by "a bunch of 20-something computer scientists". Do you really think the traditional food industry as it is is looking out for you? Most people I know have terribly unhealthy diets and almost anything that anyone put any thought in will be better for them. I'm not saying Soylent is perfect or doesn't cause any long term ill-effects, I'm just saying that it can't be much worse than a lot of "normal" diets.
- oinksoft 13y agoAt least the traditional food industry continues to be in the business of producing stuff that is mostly food. This is a radically different concept, as it is synthesized from the raw nutritional components. Whether it is safe or not, this is a great case study for nutritionists. But I don't want to be a guinea pig.
- zhemao 13y agoWhat do you mean traditional food industry? If you buy natural ingredients and cook them yourself, who are you depending on to look out for you? I'm pretty sure the people afraid of "risking their health" are not the ones who eat processed foods for every meal.
- Goronmon 13y ago>Most people I know have terribly unhealthy diets and almost anything that anyone put any thought in will be better for them. Do you have any evidence to suggest that Soylent is better for 'most people' or are you just going on gut instinct?
- w1ntermute 13y agoFor those of you considering Soylent, please read this first: http://www.priceplow.com/blog/soylent-subterfuge http://www.priceplow.com/blog/soylent-subterfuge Corresponding HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6115114 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6115114
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- eru 13y agoBitcoin is the ideal match for Soylent, since it does not allow any chargebacks.
- schrototo 13y agoFinally I can buy my fake food with fake money.
- rza 13y agoI would love to believe in this product, but there are just so many sketchy statements on the homepage alone that I doubt the ability of the team. People are literally going to entrust their lives to this product and the best third-party assurances they have are completely un-cited quotes such as: "The taste is awesome." "As a Biologist/Chemist I approve of Soylent and really want to start using it." "My mood experience! It has improved a lot lately. And by a lot, I mean A LOT."
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