9 ms·

Soylent Update 3/13

46 points by jack-r-abbit 13y ago

pyrrhotech 13y ago
I would be interested if they could get it down to $5 a day to match what I'm currently spending on food
- state 13y ago
  Would you mind giving the details on how you got the cost that low?
  - scarmig 13y ago
    Can't speak for who you're asking directly, but: lentils, rice, beans, frozen veggies, corn tortillas. Can make delicious meals with a well-stocked spice rack (which costs an initial hundred bucks or so upfront, but depreciation maybe adds at most a couple quarters to each meal). Fresh veggies are doable too, if you're smart about where you shop and what you buy.
    - desigooner 13y ago
      I'd suggest people to go shopping at your local ethnic store for spices vs. buying pre-packed spice racks or those tiny spice bottles from whole foods or your local markets. You'll get X times quantity for 1/Yth the cost. The same goes for Lentils, Beans and Rice
    - Zancarius 13y ago
      > well-stocked spice rack (which costs an initial hundred bucks or so upfront, but depreciation maybe adds at most a couple quarters to each meal). Then there's the bulk options for spices you use regularly and in sufficient quantity to keep the quality of your stock reasonably high! Being from the Southwest, that tends to include copious amounts of chili powder, paprika, and a few others for me since I go through them so quickly. I really like your post though. It doesn't cost that much to eat well, if you're willing to sacrifice some time in exchange. And it's probably healthier, too (lower sodium, plus you know more or less what you're putting into it).
  - teebrz 13y ago
    It's not hard too eat so that it only costs ~5$ a day depending on your situation. Most simple meals like a sandwich or some pasta can be made for ~1$ and a little more effort. Where I live in Philly a little ad hoc produce stand sets up right down the street regularly with very cheap produce. 5$ would buy lettuce, some apples, carrots, potatoes, etc - enough for a couple days. I can go to the Italian market and get cheap rolls and meat. The Amish and Mennonites have markets around. There are grocery stores where I can get bags of beans, rice, and other staples very cheap. The problem is if you're in a situation where it's like you get 5$ at the beginning of each day, you can't buy in bulk and save. Likewise if you live in a "food desert" it's harder to shop.
  - zacinbusiness 13y ago
    My wife and I eat really cheaply. I generally eat three meals a day, usually tofu or some sort of fish like tuna or salmon. My wife eats similarly. It's not quite $5 a day, but we get by on about $200 a month with occasional spikes due to replenishing a store such as spices, flour, etc.
nsxwolf 13y ago
I hadn't heard about this in awhile. I had hoped it had gone away. It's probably the worst product name in history. It's like a gag product you'd find on Think Geek, like cans of Unicorn Meat. I want to throw up just thinking about choking down that snot-like material.
- MichaelDickens 13y ago
  > It's probably the worst product name in history. It certainly gets people's attention, though, doesn't it?
- colechristensen 13y ago
  So you're not interested in the product, why do you care that it goes away?
  - nsxwolf 13y ago
    I'm just hoping it isn't successful. I'm not looking forward to a future where a co-worker at lunch time says "No thanks, brown-bagging it today!" and guzzles it down.
    - jack-r-abbit 13y ago
      If your coworker is brown bagging it, what do you care what is in their bag? I ate lunch with coworkers today and one of them had eggplant. I hate eggplant with a passion... but what do I care what she ate?
      - nsxwolf 13y ago
        I don't know. Feel free to psychoanalyze me. Normally I wouldn't care, as long as what was in the bag was some kind of actual recognizable food.
    - amckenna 13y ago
      You can hope it doesn't catch on at your work, or that it doesn't enable your co-workers to be anti-social, but to wish for its failure as a product seems overboard and selfish. There are millions of people that work with very limited breaks that would appreciate a cheap and relatively healthy alternative to fast food or crap from a cafeteria.
trevoragilbert 13y ago
It seems like this continues to push forward and tries to be a real product, but there are two things wrong with it. 1) outside of a really small group of people (unless I'm mistaken?), it doesn't seem like there's any demand for it and 2) it has one of the worst product names I've ever heard of.
- jack-r-abbit 13y ago
  > it has one of the worst product names I've ever heard of I beg to differ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_dick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_dick
  - jckt 13y ago
    Old dessert. Meanings of words change. Hence probably not a horrible "product name" back in the day.
  - kbutler 13y ago
    http://pioneerstories-asay.blogspot.com/2011/01/lumpy-dick.html http://pioneerstories-asay.blogspot.com/2011/01/lumpy-dick.h... My wife calls it "Pioneer Cereal".
- dllthomas 13y ago
  "it has one of the worst product names I've ever heard of" It's memorable. And FWIW, 1) the book had no cannibalism, and 2) most kinds of "SoyLent" were not made from people even in the movie.
- pa5tabear 13y ago
  I don't think the group of people is really small. People I talk to about Soylent tend to think about it in a binary "all or nothing" way. Yes, there are few who would do use it for the majority of their meals. There are many people, however, who appreciate the occasional healthy/quick/cheap meal. Soylent might not yet be "cheap", but it will be big if it gets there.
- diminoten 13y ago
  What's with the comments on here trying to torpedo Soylent because of its name? First of all, Soylent passed $2 million in orders, so there is a demand for this, even in its uncertain, preliminary state. Second of all, what's wrong with the name? You'd have to be absolutely off-the-rails crazy to think even for a moment that it's actually made of people, which leaves the only other meaning - food substitute. Really, what is it with the undue hate coming at Soylent in this comment section? Jealousy?
mmcclure 13y ago
"This rice protein is the highest mesh size on the market, which results in a smooth and creamy mouthfeel." This is why I backed Soylent. For the mouthfeel. mmm.
zacinbusiness 13y ago
I'm unsure that I understand the whole Soylent thing. Is it for lazy people or is it for people who simply don't enjoy food? I know it's not about solving some sort of food supply problem, as we've not seen tons if it being distributed for free to the hungry. And it can't be about eating healthy, because eating healthy is easy and doesn't require buying chemicals from shady manufacturers. So what's it all about?
- amckenna 13y ago
  I typically don't eat breakfast because I either don't have time, have run out of eggs/cereal/milk, or don't feel like eating one of the three typical breakfast foods. If I could supplement/substitute breakfast it would be really nice. Sometimes I eat fast food or some microwaveable thing because I am either exhausted when I come home, don't have food in the fridge, and I don't want to prepare anything or go to the super market. If I had a healthy and cheap alternative to a borrito, burger, or teriyaki chicken that would be awesome. I'm not going to go 100% on Soylent and I don't think many of the people buying into it are, it's a meal alternative and another option for those 20-40% of meals that I simply am not going to cook for whatever reason.
  - zacinbusiness 13y ago
    So it's for people with poor time management skills or who have almost no foresight? I'm glad I am able to take the minute to throw together a tofu sandwich in the morning but maybe I'm blessed with a less hectic morning routine than most Soylent users.
    - jack-r-abbit 13y ago
      I have plenty of time in the morning to make a lunch to take to work. I don't want to. Your "holier than thou" comments are not helping anyone. So you're not interested in Soylent... why be a jerk about it to people who are? I hate tofu... should I trash talk all the people that put that disgusting, vile creation into their mouth?
cwilson 13y ago
Every time we have a thread about Soylent on HN, without a doubt, it turns into a debate between people who love the product/concept and people who absolutely loathe it. I've always found it interesting that a lot of the most disruptive companies have this effect at some point, in various degrees. Apple, Uber, Airbnb, and recently Secret all come to mind. I'm not saying this is any kind of a predictor for the success of Soylent, but it's still interesting.
- jack-r-abbit 13y ago
  Soylent threads also get a lot of snarky and rude comments directed at the people who love the concept. The others you listed (with the exception of Apple) don't get that so much. I don't think I've ever read an Uber or Airbnb thread where the people against it were so rude to the people for it.
jack-r-abbit 13y ago
I'm sad about yet another delay. I hope they can get this sorted out. I ordered a little later in the campaign and wasn't expecting my 30 day supply until late Dec or early Jan. but now we're looking at late April.
- quomopete 13y ago
  guess you'll just have to sustain yourself on real food till then :)
  - jack-r-abbit 13y ago
    Oh... I've been just starving while I wait. :) I'm just eager to get it and try it.
ovi256 13y ago
Why go with an exotic, new protein source like brown rice when there're others available in huge quantities and very good quality like whey protein isolate ? Whey protein may not be 100% for vegans, I guess. But then, it's something so remote from milk, just as rice isolate is remote from rice.
- doctoboggan 13y ago
  You question was addressed in the article. Apparently the protein source they choose has the best mouth feel.
- bri3d 13y ago
  http://discourse.soylent.me/t/new-soylent-feedback-category/3670/4 http://discourse.soylent.me/t/new-soylent-feedback-category/... There's the stated reason. Personally given threads like that I wouldn't touch this stuff with a ten foot pole as a complete meal replacement.
  - dxbydt 13y ago
    Wow, what a crazy thread! They are going about picking nutrients the way I would go about picking some web framework. Hey lets pick Rails what dynamic languages no way ok how about Servlets no way dude no semicolons for me ok then how about Play dude its like so boilerplatey ok fine how about scalatra fine scalatra it is. There's no thought that some human is actually going to put this thing in his mouth, what effects its going to have on his health and well-being. Nutrition as a Service.
    - pbreit 13y ago
      "They are going about picking nutrients the way I..." pick groceries at the market?
    - nitrogen 13y ago
      It doesn't seem so crazy to me. Those aren't the people who created Soylent, just potential customers explaining what they want from the product. Were you expecting a magical revelation from the gods of nutrition?
DonGateley 13y ago
Too bad they aren't interested in assisting the poor. This could have been a godsend. The market their price targets will likely show little interest. They like and can afford food.
- ufo 13y ago
  I'm skeptical that a packaged product like soylent would be able to compete in price with regular food. Their market, at least for now is going to be a) people who want a strict diet and b) people who would rather eat a milk shake than cook normal food.
- volune 13y ago
  Where did they say they are not interested in assisting the poor?
  - pyrrhotech 13y ago
    At about $9/day, it's still too expensive for a lot of poor people. You can eat rice and beans for $1 a day, or a healthy variety of food for $5-6/day (though requiring more time to prepare obviously)
    - kaoD 13y ago
      Their price tag is not an indicative on whether they're interested in helping poor people or not.
- IvyMike 13y ago
  Isn't there already Plumpy'nut for that?
- sfeng 13y ago
  Every product needs to assist the poor or it's immoral?
  - cwe 13y ago
    where did the commenter say it was immoral?
trekky1700 13y ago
With all these issues with the protein source, perhaps Soylent is only viable when it's made out of people...
volune 13y ago
With this many delays it would have been more fitting if they had use Kickstarter.com to raise their money.
Cthulhu_ 13y ago
> and RFI has ordered several pallets of rice protein via air freight, so the manufacturing process can begin earlier and supporters can start receiving shipments. With tricks like that, it's unlikely Soylent will become affordable anytime soon. But then, experimental food technology, small scale, etc. I'm still pretty sure that if it does become big enough to be distributed to grocery stores, it'll find a way somewhere in the diet department, right next to the diet shakes and whatnot.
- amckenna 13y ago
  With a steady supply line and a better understanding of demand after initial launch the supply line can be smoothed out and cheaper methods of transportation can be employed. Right now they are paying to speed up the process and make up for lost time. I'm not going to speculate on its future success but even if it lands amongst the diet shakes it would be in a multi billion dollar market.
- stusmall 13y ago
  That's just how early R&D is when you have a physical product. I can't count how much crazy crap I've seen rushed from China to make a deadline or meet early turn outs. Sometimes engineering time and early adopter happiness are worth a lot more than the one off cost of some air freight. Its not like (at least I hope not how) that's how their supply chain will be working in the long term.
- MetaCosm 13y ago
  They went into this with zero experience and have just been trying to hire to fill the gaps, and it shows. They will get better at the contracts (make non-fulfillment hurt contractually) and stuff will improve. It is really hard to be a newbie to the creation of physical stuff -- lots of learning. They are doing it at a decent scale to boot.
DrJ 13y ago
It's odd that whenever I see an update from Soylent I already assume that it is an 'Soylent will be ready next month maybe' email. I'm hoping to be surprised in April, but then I was also today, last month, January... etc.

Soylent Update 3/13

46 points by jack-r-abbit 13y ago

pyrrhotech 13y ago

I would be interested if they could get it down to $5 a day to match what I'm currently spending on food

state 13y ago
Would you mind giving the details on how you got the cost that low?
- scarmig 13y ago
  Can't speak for who you're asking directly, but: lentils, rice, beans, frozen veggies, corn tortillas. Can make delicious meals with a well-stocked spice rack (which costs an initial hundred bucks or so upfront, but depreciation maybe adds at most a couple quarters to each meal). Fresh veggies are doable too, if you're smart about where you shop and what you buy.
  - desigooner 13y ago
    I'd suggest people to go shopping at your local ethnic store for spices vs. buying pre-packed spice racks or those tiny spice bottles from whole foods or your local markets. You'll get X times quantity for 1/Yth the cost. The same goes for Lentils, Beans and Rice
  - Zancarius 13y ago
    > well-stocked spice rack (which costs an initial hundred bucks or so upfront, but depreciation maybe adds at most a couple quarters to each meal). Then there's the bulk options for spices you use regularly and in sufficient quantity to keep the quality of your stock reasonably high! Being from the Southwest, that tends to include copious amounts of chili powder, paprika, and a few others for me since I go through them so quickly. I really like your post though. It doesn't cost that much to eat well, if you're willing to sacrifice some time in exchange. And it's probably healthier, too (lower sodium, plus you know more or less what you're putting into it).
- teebrz 13y ago
  It's not hard too eat so that it only costs ~5$ a day depending on your situation. Most simple meals like a sandwich or some pasta can be made for ~1$ and a little more effort. Where I live in Philly a little ad hoc produce stand sets up right down the street regularly with very cheap produce. 5$ would buy lettuce, some apples, carrots, potatoes, etc - enough for a couple days. I can go to the Italian market and get cheap rolls and meat. The Amish and Mennonites have markets around. There are grocery stores where I can get bags of beans, rice, and other staples very cheap. The problem is if you're in a situation where it's like you get 5$ at the beginning of each day, you can't buy in bulk and save. Likewise if you live in a "food desert" it's harder to shop.
- zacinbusiness 13y ago
  My wife and I eat really cheaply. I generally eat three meals a day, usually tofu or some sort of fish like tuna or salmon. My wife eats similarly. It's not quite $5 a day, but we get by on about $200 a month with occasional spikes due to replenishing a store such as spices, flour, etc.

nsxwolf 13y ago

I hadn't heard about this in awhile. I had hoped it had gone away. It's probably the worst product name in history. It's like a gag product you'd find on Think Geek, like cans of Unicorn Meat. I want to throw up just thinking about choking down that snot-like material.

MichaelDickens 13y ago
> It's probably the worst product name in history. It certainly gets people's attention, though, doesn't it?
colechristensen 13y ago
So you're not interested in the product, why do you care that it goes away?
- nsxwolf 13y ago
  I'm just hoping it isn't successful. I'm not looking forward to a future where a co-worker at lunch time says "No thanks, brown-bagging it today!" and guzzles it down.
  - jack-r-abbit 13y ago
    If your coworker is brown bagging it, what do you care what is in their bag? I ate lunch with coworkers today and one of them had eggplant. I hate eggplant with a passion... but what do I care what she ate?
    - nsxwolf 13y ago
      I don't know. Feel free to psychoanalyze me. Normally I wouldn't care, as long as what was in the bag was some kind of actual recognizable food.
  - amckenna 13y ago
    You can hope it doesn't catch on at your work, or that it doesn't enable your co-workers to be anti-social, but to wish for its failure as a product seems overboard and selfish. There are millions of people that work with very limited breaks that would appreciate a cheap and relatively healthy alternative to fast food or crap from a cafeteria.

trevoragilbert 13y ago

It seems like this continues to push forward and tries to be a real product, but there are two things wrong with it. 1) outside of a really small group of people (unless I'm mistaken?), it doesn't seem like there's any demand for it and 2) it has one of the worst product names I've ever heard of.

jack-r-abbit 13y ago
> it has one of the worst product names I've ever heard of I beg to differ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_dick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_dick
- jckt 13y ago
  Old dessert. Meanings of words change. Hence probably not a horrible "product name" back in the day.
- kbutler 13y ago
  http://pioneerstories-asay.blogspot.com/2011/01/lumpy-dick.html http://pioneerstories-asay.blogspot.com/2011/01/lumpy-dick.h... My wife calls it "Pioneer Cereal".
dllthomas 13y ago
"it has one of the worst product names I've ever heard of" It's memorable. And FWIW, 1) the book had no cannibalism, and 2) most kinds of "SoyLent" were not made from people even in the movie.
pa5tabear 13y ago
I don't think the group of people is really small. People I talk to about Soylent tend to think about it in a binary "all or nothing" way. Yes, there are few who would do use it for the majority of their meals. There are many people, however, who appreciate the occasional healthy/quick/cheap meal. Soylent might not yet be "cheap", but it will be big if it gets there.
diminoten 13y ago
What's with the comments on here trying to torpedo Soylent because of its name? First of all, Soylent passed $2 million in orders, so there is a demand for this, even in its uncertain, preliminary state. Second of all, what's wrong with the name? You'd have to be absolutely off-the-rails crazy to think even for a moment that it's actually made of people, which leaves the only other meaning - food substitute. Really, what is it with the undue hate coming at Soylent in this comment section? Jealousy?

mmcclure 13y ago

"This rice protein is the highest mesh size on the market, which results in a smooth and creamy mouthfeel." This is why I backed Soylent. For the mouthfeel. mmm.

zacinbusiness 13y ago

I'm unsure that I understand the whole Soylent thing. Is it for lazy people or is it for people who simply don't enjoy food? I know it's not about solving some sort of food supply problem, as we've not seen tons if it being distributed for free to the hungry. And it can't be about eating healthy, because eating healthy is easy and doesn't require buying chemicals from shady manufacturers. So what's it all about?

amckenna 13y ago
I typically don't eat breakfast because I either don't have time, have run out of eggs/cereal/milk, or don't feel like eating one of the three typical breakfast foods. If I could supplement/substitute breakfast it would be really nice. Sometimes I eat fast food or some microwaveable thing because I am either exhausted when I come home, don't have food in the fridge, and I don't want to prepare anything or go to the super market. If I had a healthy and cheap alternative to a borrito, burger, or teriyaki chicken that would be awesome. I'm not going to go 100% on Soylent and I don't think many of the people buying into it are, it's a meal alternative and another option for those 20-40% of meals that I simply am not going to cook for whatever reason.
- zacinbusiness 13y ago
  So it's for people with poor time management skills or who have almost no foresight? I'm glad I am able to take the minute to throw together a tofu sandwich in the morning but maybe I'm blessed with a less hectic morning routine than most Soylent users.
  - jack-r-abbit 13y ago
    I have plenty of time in the morning to make a lunch to take to work. I don't want to. Your "holier than thou" comments are not helping anyone. So you're not interested in Soylent... why be a jerk about it to people who are? I hate tofu... should I trash talk all the people that put that disgusting, vile creation into their mouth?

cwilson 13y ago

Every time we have a thread about Soylent on HN, without a doubt, it turns into a debate between people who love the product/concept and people who absolutely loathe it. I've always found it interesting that a lot of the most disruptive companies have this effect at some point, in various degrees. Apple, Uber, Airbnb, and recently Secret all come to mind. I'm not saying this is any kind of a predictor for the success of Soylent, but it's still interesting.

jack-r-abbit 13y ago
Soylent threads also get a lot of snarky and rude comments directed at the people who love the concept. The others you listed (with the exception of Apple) don't get that so much. I don't think I've ever read an Uber or Airbnb thread where the people against it were so rude to the people for it.

jack-r-abbit 13y ago

I'm sad about yet another delay. I hope they can get this sorted out. I ordered a little later in the campaign and wasn't expecting my 30 day supply until late Dec or early Jan. but now we're looking at late April.

quomopete 13y ago
guess you'll just have to sustain yourself on real food till then :)
- jack-r-abbit 13y ago
  Oh... I've been just starving while I wait. :) I'm just eager to get it and try it.

ovi256 13y ago

Why go with an exotic, new protein source like brown rice when there're others available in huge quantities and very good quality like whey protein isolate ? Whey protein may not be 100% for vegans, I guess. But then, it's something so remote from milk, just as rice isolate is remote from rice.

doctoboggan 13y ago
You question was addressed in the article. Apparently the protein source they choose has the best mouth feel.
bri3d 13y ago
http://discourse.soylent.me/t/new-soylent-feedback-category/3670/4 http://discourse.soylent.me/t/new-soylent-feedback-category/... There's the stated reason. Personally given threads like that I wouldn't touch this stuff with a ten foot pole as a complete meal replacement.
- dxbydt 13y ago
  Wow, what a crazy thread! They are going about picking nutrients the way I would go about picking some web framework. Hey lets pick Rails what dynamic languages no way ok how about Servlets no way dude no semicolons for me ok then how about Play dude its like so boilerplatey ok fine how about scalatra fine scalatra it is. There's no thought that some human is actually going to put this thing in his mouth, what effects its going to have on his health and well-being. Nutrition as a Service.
  - pbreit 13y ago
    "They are going about picking nutrients the way I..." pick groceries at the market?
  - nitrogen 13y ago
    It doesn't seem so crazy to me. Those aren't the people who created Soylent, just potential customers explaining what they want from the product. Were you expecting a magical revelation from the gods of nutrition?

DonGateley 13y ago

Too bad they aren't interested in assisting the poor. This could have been a godsend. The market their price targets will likely show little interest. They like and can afford food.

ufo 13y ago
I'm skeptical that a packaged product like soylent would be able to compete in price with regular food. Their market, at least for now is going to be a) people who want a strict diet and b) people who would rather eat a milk shake than cook normal food.
volune 13y ago
Where did they say they are not interested in assisting the poor?
- pyrrhotech 13y ago
  At about $9/day, it's still too expensive for a lot of poor people. You can eat rice and beans for $1 a day, or a healthy variety of food for $5-6/day (though requiring more time to prepare obviously)
  - kaoD 13y ago
    Their price tag is not an indicative on whether they're interested in helping poor people or not.
IvyMike 13y ago
Isn't there already Plumpy'nut for that?
sfeng 13y ago
Every product needs to assist the poor or it's immoral?
- cwe 13y ago
  where did the commenter say it was immoral?

trekky1700 13y ago

With all these issues with the protein source, perhaps Soylent is only viable when it's made out of people...

volune 13y ago

With this many delays it would have been more fitting if they had use Kickstarter.com to raise their money.

Cthulhu_ 13y ago

> and RFI has ordered several pallets of rice protein via air freight, so the manufacturing process can begin earlier and supporters can start receiving shipments. With tricks like that, it's unlikely Soylent will become affordable anytime soon. But then, experimental food technology, small scale, etc. I'm still pretty sure that if it does become big enough to be distributed to grocery stores, it'll find a way somewhere in the diet department, right next to the diet shakes and whatnot.

amckenna 13y ago
With a steady supply line and a better understanding of demand after initial launch the supply line can be smoothed out and cheaper methods of transportation can be employed. Right now they are paying to speed up the process and make up for lost time. I'm not going to speculate on its future success but even if it lands amongst the diet shakes it would be in a multi billion dollar market.
stusmall 13y ago
That's just how early R&D is when you have a physical product. I can't count how much crazy crap I've seen rushed from China to make a deadline or meet early turn outs. Sometimes engineering time and early adopter happiness are worth a lot more than the one off cost of some air freight. Its not like (at least I hope not how) that's how their supply chain will be working in the long term.
MetaCosm 13y ago
They went into this with zero experience and have just been trying to hire to fill the gaps, and it shows. They will get better at the contracts (make non-fulfillment hurt contractually) and stuff will improve. It is really hard to be a newbie to the creation of physical stuff -- lots of learning. They are doing it at a decent scale to boot.

DrJ 13y ago

It's odd that whenever I see an update from Soylent I already assume that it is an 'Soylent will be ready next month maybe' email. I'm hoping to be surprised in April, but then I was also today, last month, January... etc.