8 ms·

Orders projected to begin shipping 4/21

58 points by jack-r-abbit 13y ago

StavrosK 13y ago
Soylent sounds like a nice substitute when I'm too lazy to cook/order, but I don't think I'd ever trust it to be the only thing I eat. What about vitamins/etc?
- codezero 13y ago
  There are several articles about this, journalists got preview runs of it and several ate soylent exclusively while being closely monitored by doctors. Their health was not negatively affected in any way, except for having pasty, greyish poop :P
  - StavrosK 13y ago
    Imagine the wiping!
- psychometry 13y ago
  Who is requiring Soylent purchasers (or you) to eat it for every meal? I've never heard anyone even suggest that they're personally going to do that. It's getting tiresome seeing this comment posted over and over again.
- canjobear 13y ago
  I think your use case is exactly what makes Soylent promising. The media hype about Soylent as a total meal replacement that gives you superpowers or something seems misguided. Much more compelling to me is the idea of something that is very easy and inoffensive to eat when I don't have time to make or buy food.
  - mehwoot 13y ago
    The media hype about Soylent as a total meal replacement that gives you superpowers or something seems misguided. Yes but it was media hype triggered by the guy who came up with it in the first place. He made the claims, not the media.
  - StavrosK 13y ago
    Also the fact that I can exactly estimate calories by weighing it. That should enable a few nice experiments (e.g. people measuring their weight gain/loss precisely).
- caublestone 13y ago
  Soylent has all of the RDI's of vitamins and minerals for your diet. We don't expect anyone to live off of it, but we design it so you can feel confident that Soylent is an option to do so if you absolutely have to.
  - StavrosK 13y ago
    Huh, that's pretty good, well done!
rglover 13y ago
Excited to finally try this. Curious if it will live up to the hype/wait. Has anyone gotten an early sample?
- caublestone 13y ago
  The final soylent formula tastes incredible. We are in the process of having medical research firm conducting formal tests on the precise effects soylent has on people during real world use. Regardless, soylent is safe for consumption now as certified by our manufacturer and the FDA.
acjohnson55 13y ago
I don't feel like this is a good name for a food product. Doesn't anybody remember the 70's? "Soylent Green is people!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IKVj4l5GU4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IKVj4l5GU4
- codezero 13y ago
  That's exactly why they chose it. It's more in reference to the ubiquitous foodstuff made of ambiguous contents, a bit tongue in cheek, but clearly we are meant to get the reference, and at least for now we can be pretty sure it's free of people. http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2013/08/20/soylent/ http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2013/08/20/soylent/ http://robrhinehart.com/?p=474 http://robrhinehart.com/?p=474 http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/soylent-no-food-for-30-days http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/soylent-no-food-for-30-days ^Soylent's response: http://blog.soylent.me/post/66807143901/this-morning-vices-brian-merchant-published-a http://blog.soylent.me/post/66807143901/this-morning-vices-b...
  - acjohnson55 13y ago
    Thanks for the resources. This is the first time I've heard of this product. Very interesting. I'm doing a nutritional experiment for the month, avoiding meat, bread, alcohol, sweeteners, and potatoes. It would be interesting to do the Soylent for a month experiment, perhaps with additional flavorings.
- jack-r-abbit 13y ago
  But... this isn't Soylent Green. And if you recall, the other variants of Soylent products from the book/movie were NOT people. So... let's not focus on that one and focus on this one.
overload119 13y ago
I've been watching Soylent for a while now, including following the different home-brew recipes[1]. The verdict is still out on whether you can actually live off this stuff. If you're curious about the experience, there have been a number of journalists who have gone on the stuff for a short period and wrote about it. [2][3]. EDIT: To clarify, there haven't been any long-term studies that I found on living off a nutritional shake like this and the effect that it has on your overall health. It's akin to the same stuff they feed people who won't/cannot feed themselves[4] except a lot cheaper and (hopefully) tastes better. [1] http://diy.soylent.me http://diy.soylent.me [2] http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/blog/soylent-no-food-for-30-days http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/blog/soylent-no-food-for-3... [3] http://gawker.com/we-drank-soylent-the-weird-food-of-the-future-510293401 http://gawker.com/we-drank-soylent-the-weird-food-of-the-fut... [4] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/14/rob-rhinehart-has-a-crazy-plan-to-let-you-go-without-food-forever-it-just-might-work/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/14/r...
- ballard 13y ago
  Neat. A friend of mine evaluated them pre-money and wrote them off initially, but changed their mind considering how far they've grown.
quasque 13y ago
I don't really understand the hype over this product. This type of thing is already well established in the healthcare sector, see e.g. https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/formulary/bnf/current/a2-borderline-substances/a21-enteral-feeds-non-disease-specific https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/formulary/bnf/current/a2-borderl..., with the added benefit that such products are formulated by nutrition scientists who actually know what they're doing, and run proper clinical trials to test.
- jheimark 13y ago
  "Unfortunately this site is only available from Great Britain." Do you have another link? This looks interesting.
  - quasque 13y ago
    Does this work? http://www.justproxy.co.uk/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZXZpZGVuY2UubmhzLnVrL2Zvcm11bGFyeS9ibmYvY3VycmVudC9hMi1ib3JkZXJsaW5lLXN1YnN0YW5jZXMvYTIxLWVudGVyYWwtZmVlZHMtbm9uLWRpc2Vhc2Utc3BlY2lmaWM%3D&hl=2ed http://www.justproxy.co.uk/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZXZpZ...
- scrollaway 13y ago
  Every time with the "I don't really understand ...". It pops up everywhere; It's ubiquitous. You always have someone saying "I don't understand why this is so popular when it was done before". "I don't understand why you would do this when this also works and is already available". With tech, with everything. Heck, even on HN/Reddit! When there's a repost with a catchier title, people don't understand how the old submission didn't get more upvooootes! People don't understand Docker when BSD Jails are the thing! People don't understand why Das Keyboards are so popular when the Model M is clearly better! People don't understand why Apple is getting all the love for products that are "basically just a shinier x and y". Maybe you guys should think for a minute and then you'll understand. I'm tired of this trope. Because marketing
  - quasque 13y ago
    You're right, I misworded. I should have said that I see no functional advantage to Soylent as it's already been done by many others already, and with more scientific evidence. I would be more trusting of their product if they had worked with an established medical nutrition supplier to rebrand and flavour an existing enteral feed, rather than hacking something up and minimally testing it.
quaunaut 13y ago
I'm really curious about this, because frankly I just do not care about food. It costs a lot of money to buy. It costs a lot of time to prepare, unless you pay someone else even more money to do it for you. It takes up a ton of space, and even requires you to have a bunch of appliances just for its existence. All so you can what- get a taste in your mouth and not die? I know that's a gross oversimplification(forgive me for it if you will), but it's always been a hassle I just really don't enjoy dealing with as often as I have to. I want to enjoy food, not be forced into it. If this is actually healthy- and I want something more than a few people living off of it for a couple weeks- I'd love it. I wouldn't give up food entirely of course, but I'd save it for when I actually want a specific taste, or to go to a specific experience with friends and family.
- IvyMike 13y ago
  I'm curious--have you tried replacing some of your meals with Ensure? Edit: I'm not suggesting that Ensure and soylent are identical, but there is a lot of overlap, and in this case it appears to satisfy a lot of the requirements in the parent comment.
  - at-fates-hands 13y ago
    This. It's interesting to me when something like this comes along and people herald it as something completely ground breaking when there's already a myriad of products do this and probably taste infinitely better. Not saying its a bad idea, but this space is already incredibly crowded. what's the selling point that Soylent has over its competitors?
    - pbreit 13y ago
      I would not call the space incredibly crowded. In fact, I'm not aware of anyone else promoting at the consumer level a 14-21/week meal replacement product.
      - DanBC 13y ago
        Because that approach is fantastically irresponsible and existing companies don't want the legal hassle.
SirensOfTitan 13y ago
I don't trust this stuff. The plural of anecdote is not data, and a couple people who've tried this are not a representative indication of whether this is safe or not. Diet is still not well understood, and current science, IMO, is too soft of a foundation upon which to build a complete meal replacement on. I'm sure this would be fine for the occasional use, but until some longitudinal studies are performed, I would be weary for long term usage.
- maxerickson 13y ago
  What aspect of nutrition do you think they are most likely to have screwed up?
- jliptzin 13y ago
  We've been feeding dogs and cats the same thing 2-3 times / day their whole lives and they seem quite happy.
  - caublestone 13y ago
    Animals love Soylent too!
  - DanBC 13y ago
    Cats often die from renal / urinary problems and cat food plays a large role in that.
- ballard 13y ago
  How can you judge something with blanket FUD you haven't seen, smelled or tasted yet? Give them a chance before condemning them.
- _greim_ 13y ago
  The bar Soylent needs to clear is not the ideal perfect diet that scientists may discover one day, but rather the diet of average joe in 2014. Not a very high bar.
- acjohnson55 13y ago
krstck 13y ago
If we order now, will we still have ours shipped with the first batch? Or is it back logged? I'm excited about this. I love eating food but I really hate making it. If this proves adequate I can definitely see myself having this 5-6 days a week and then eating meals on the weekend with humans.
- caublestone 13y ago
  We ship orders based on size first and order date second. If you order a week today, that order will be placed at the back of the queue. If you order say 6 months, your order will be one of the first to go out.
hawkharris 13y ago
Soylent is betting on the fact that consumers want to separate the nourishment of food from the ritual of eating. That's a bit like saying, "We can offer you the ability to reproduce without the inconvenience of having sex." Don't get me wrong...I hope that this startup will succeed and prove me wrong. And to be fair, they aren't calling for people to abandon solid food. It's just that, as technical people, I think we sometimes overemphasize the efficiency of this product and underemphasize the cultural attitudes of everyday consumers.
- dpapathanasiou 13y ago
  "Soylent is betting on the fact that consumers want to separate the nourishment of food from the ritual of eating. That's a bit like saying, 'We can offer you the ability to reproduce without the inconvenience of having sex.'" This is the best criticism of soylent; what they're doing just goes against the grain of how peoples' minds are wired. Maybe it'll wind up gaining traction as a fad instead, like the meal replacement product on House of Lies[1] this past season[2]. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLPhbw0IBk8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLPhbw0IBk8 [2] When I saw that episode, I wondered if it was meant as a deliberate spoof of soylent.
  - gfodor 13y ago
    Many people eat mediocre or plain food, particularly for lunch. If you could substitute something that was healthier and more convenient you're not exactly forgoing "sex" if you are replacing a turkey sandwich, fast food, etc.
  - _greim_ 13y ago
    > This is the best criticism of soylent I disagree. With sex, the enjoyment can be had no matter what, while the biological part (reproduction) is optional. But with food, it's often a mutually exclusive choice between enjoyment and biology (proper nutrition). Especially when you have three dollars and ten minutes to spare. So it isn't quite a valid comparison.
  - pbreit 13y ago
    People's minds are wired basically to get whatever food they need to remain alive so I'm not sure quite what you mean. They are also wired to optimize repetitive actions.
MattGrommes 13y ago
I've been extremely skeptical of Soylent but I do think I'm going to try it after a few months of guinea pigs have gone before me. I'm curious about using it as a way of breaking a habit of eating shitty foods. The idea of going cold turkey off "food" completely for awhile and seeing it that will help cause a break in my eating habits is pretty compelling.
- goofygrin 13y ago
  This is exactly my plan and need as well. 7pm and no dinner plans? Instead of take out... Have a soylent.
mynameishere 13y ago
If all else fails, they can sell it to prisons as disciplinary rations. I honestly can't fathom who would want such a bad product--aside from people who have an active disdain towards eating. Also, potatoes are already nutritionally complete (minus B12 iirc), probably cheaper than this, and certainly better tasting.
microjesus 13y ago
Ever since bulking up, I eat ridiculously healthy. The amount of time and money that it takes to do this is insane. I've been waiting for this moment for a very long time. The fact that (as mentioned in comments) the space needed for this versus a full kitchen/pantry/appliances etc is nothing. Game on.
- caublestone 13y ago
  I put on 20lbs in 2 months. Having Soylent made it so easy to measure exactly how many calories I'm getting and how much protein and fat to add on top of the base formula (2k cals per 66oz). Others in the company went the paleo diet route and spent 5-7x more money and 10-12x more time on prep.
ballard 13y ago
I don't eat meat as I don't agree with either how it's produced or the suffering necessary to extract it. Right now, I mostly consume quick oats and protein powder for bulk caloric needs. Vitamins are a generally a waste of money so daily requirements are met by a balance of vegetables, nuts and legumes. If Soylent were viable and cheaper than Ensure, I'd consider it. But I'm unwilling to pay more for convenience as I can do better on my own for far cheaper.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
lquist 13y ago
Reminds me of the xkcd packaging: http://xkcd.com/993/ http://xkcd.com/993/
- caublestone 13y ago
  Exactly.
arasmussen 13y ago
Soylent and Bitcoin are the two things that I am quite positive will be a remarkably large part of our future. The biggest feedback I get about Soylent are the following: - What if it doesn't taste good? - But I enjoy eating real food... We'll find out soon about the first and, frankly, the latter simply doesn't apply to a very large number of people. Soylent is perfect for people who are short of one of two quite valuable things: time and money. Time: When's the last time you thought or heard "man, I wish the day had 10 more hours in it"? Soylent won't buy you 10, but I'd say it'll easily buy you one at the very least. All of a sudden you don't even have to think about grocery shopping or where you're going to go on your lunch break. You now get to spend your grocery evening doing whatever you want because you have Soylent. You can spend your lunch break working and get 45 minutes more done every day, or doing something you really enjoy. Money: Given all the recent posts about what percentage of people own what percentage of money, it's clear that there are a large number of people who are not well off. There are people in third world countries who are not and will never be well off. Soylent will probably be able to feed them the most nutritious meal they've had in a long time for very cheap. They're at about $3 per meal right now and I'd imagine the majority of their focus has been on scaling infrastructure, not pushing the price point. Imagine when the get into manufacturing ingredients themselves, the price point could be much lower. That would be revolutionary if we could feed entire countries more nutritious meals for far less money. I can't wait until I get my Soylent. Hopefully it tastes as great as they advertise. :P
- rtpg 13y ago
  I love my lunch break, lunch isn't just about eating. The price aspect can be interesting , but I really don't need an excuse for my boss to get rid of my lunch break

58 points by jack-r-abbit 13y ago

Soylent sounds like a nice substitute when I'm too lazy to cook/order, but I don't think I'd ever trust it to be the only thing I eat. What about vitamins/etc?

codezero 13y ago
There are several articles about this, journalists got preview runs of it and several ate soylent exclusively while being closely monitored by doctors. Their health was not negatively affected in any way, except for having pasty, greyish poop :P
- StavrosK 13y ago
  Imagine the wiping!
psychometry 13y ago
Who is requiring Soylent purchasers (or you) to eat it for every meal? I've never heard anyone even suggest that they're personally going to do that. It's getting tiresome seeing this comment posted over and over again.
canjobear 13y ago
I think your use case is exactly what makes Soylent promising. The media hype about Soylent as a total meal replacement that gives you superpowers or something seems misguided. Much more compelling to me is the idea of something that is very easy and inoffensive to eat when I don't have time to make or buy food.
- mehwoot 13y ago
  The media hype about Soylent as a total meal replacement that gives you superpowers or something seems misguided. Yes but it was media hype triggered by the guy who came up with it in the first place. He made the claims, not the media.
- StavrosK 13y ago
  Also the fact that I can exactly estimate calories by weighing it. That should enable a few nice experiments (e.g. people measuring their weight gain/loss precisely).
caublestone 13y ago
Soylent has all of the RDI's of vitamins and minerals for your diet. We don't expect anyone to live off of it, but we design it so you can feel confident that Soylent is an option to do so if you absolutely have to.
- StavrosK 13y ago
  Huh, that's pretty good, well done!

rglover 13y ago

Excited to finally try this. Curious if it will live up to the hype/wait. Has anyone gotten an early sample?

caublestone 13y ago
The final soylent formula tastes incredible. We are in the process of having medical research firm conducting formal tests on the precise effects soylent has on people during real world use. Regardless, soylent is safe for consumption now as certified by our manufacturer and the FDA.

acjohnson55 13y ago

I don't feel like this is a good name for a food product. Doesn't anybody remember the 70's? "Soylent Green is people!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IKVj4l5GU4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IKVj4l5GU4

codezero 13y ago
That's exactly why they chose it. It's more in reference to the ubiquitous foodstuff made of ambiguous contents, a bit tongue in cheek, but clearly we are meant to get the reference, and at least for now we can be pretty sure it's free of people. http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2013/08/20/soylent/ http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2013/08/20/soylent/ http://robrhinehart.com/?p=474 http://robrhinehart.com/?p=474 http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/soylent-no-food-for-30-days http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/soylent-no-food-for-30-days ^Soylent's response: http://blog.soylent.me/post/66807143901/this-morning-vices-brian-merchant-published-a http://blog.soylent.me/post/66807143901/this-morning-vices-b...
- acjohnson55 13y ago
  Thanks for the resources. This is the first time I've heard of this product. Very interesting. I'm doing a nutritional experiment for the month, avoiding meat, bread, alcohol, sweeteners, and potatoes. It would be interesting to do the Soylent for a month experiment, perhaps with additional flavorings.
jack-r-abbit 13y ago
But... this isn't Soylent Green. And if you recall, the other variants of Soylent products from the book/movie were NOT people. So... let's not focus on that one and focus on this one.

overload119 13y ago

I've been watching Soylent for a while now, including following the different home-brew recipes[1]. The verdict is still out on whether you can actually live off this stuff. If you're curious about the experience, there have been a number of journalists who have gone on the stuff for a short period and wrote about it. [2][3]. EDIT: To clarify, there haven't been any long-term studies that I found on living off a nutritional shake like this and the effect that it has on your overall health. It's akin to the same stuff they feed people who won't/cannot feed themselves[4] except a lot cheaper and (hopefully) tastes better. [1] http://diy.soylent.me http://diy.soylent.me [2] http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/blog/soylent-no-food-for-30-days http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/blog/soylent-no-food-for-3... [3] http://gawker.com/we-drank-soylent-the-weird-food-of-the-future-510293401 http://gawker.com/we-drank-soylent-the-weird-food-of-the-fut... [4] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/14/rob-rhinehart-has-a-crazy-plan-to-let-you-go-without-food-forever-it-just-might-work/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/14/r...

ballard 13y ago
Neat. A friend of mine evaluated them pre-money and wrote them off initially, but changed their mind considering how far they've grown.

quasque 13y ago

I don't really understand the hype over this product. This type of thing is already well established in the healthcare sector, see e.g. https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/formulary/bnf/current/a2-borderline-substances/a21-enteral-feeds-non-disease-specific https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/formulary/bnf/current/a2-borderl..., with the added benefit that such products are formulated by nutrition scientists who actually know what they're doing, and run proper clinical trials to test.

jheimark 13y ago
"Unfortunately this site is only available from Great Britain." Do you have another link? This looks interesting.
- quasque 13y ago
  Does this work? http://www.justproxy.co.uk/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZXZpZGVuY2UubmhzLnVrL2Zvcm11bGFyeS9ibmYvY3VycmVudC9hMi1ib3JkZXJsaW5lLXN1YnN0YW5jZXMvYTIxLWVudGVyYWwtZmVlZHMtbm9uLWRpc2Vhc2Utc3BlY2lmaWM%3D&hl=2ed http://www.justproxy.co.uk/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZXZpZ...
scrollaway 13y ago
Every time with the "I don't really understand ...". It pops up everywhere; It's ubiquitous. You always have someone saying "I don't understand why this is so popular when it was done before". "I don't understand why you would do this when this also works and is already available". With tech, with everything. Heck, even on HN/Reddit! When there's a repost with a catchier title, people don't understand how the old submission didn't get more upvooootes! People don't understand Docker when BSD Jails are the thing! People don't understand why Das Keyboards are so popular when the Model M is clearly better! People don't understand why Apple is getting all the love for products that are "basically just a shinier x and y". Maybe you guys should think for a minute and then you'll understand. I'm tired of this trope. Because marketing
- quasque 13y ago
  You're right, I misworded. I should have said that I see no functional advantage to Soylent as it's already been done by many others already, and with more scientific evidence. I would be more trusting of their product if they had worked with an established medical nutrition supplier to rebrand and flavour an existing enteral feed, rather than hacking something up and minimally testing it.

quaunaut 13y ago

I'm really curious about this, because frankly I just do not care about food. It costs a lot of money to buy. It costs a lot of time to prepare, unless you pay someone else even more money to do it for you. It takes up a ton of space, and even requires you to have a bunch of appliances just for its existence. All so you can what- get a taste in your mouth and not die? I know that's a gross oversimplification(forgive me for it if you will), but it's always been a hassle I just really don't enjoy dealing with as often as I have to. I want to enjoy food, not be forced into it. If this is actually healthy- and I want something more than a few people living off of it for a couple weeks- I'd love it. I wouldn't give up food entirely of course, but I'd save it for when I actually want a specific taste, or to go to a specific experience with friends and family.

IvyMike 13y ago
I'm curious--have you tried replacing some of your meals with Ensure? Edit: I'm not suggesting that Ensure and soylent are identical, but there is a lot of overlap, and in this case it appears to satisfy a lot of the requirements in the parent comment.
- at-fates-hands 13y ago
  This. It's interesting to me when something like this comes along and people herald it as something completely ground breaking when there's already a myriad of products do this and probably taste infinitely better. Not saying its a bad idea, but this space is already incredibly crowded. what's the selling point that Soylent has over its competitors?
  - pbreit 13y ago
    I would not call the space incredibly crowded. In fact, I'm not aware of anyone else promoting at the consumer level a 14-21/week meal replacement product.
    - DanBC 13y ago
      Because that approach is fantastically irresponsible and existing companies don't want the legal hassle.

SirensOfTitan 13y ago

I don't trust this stuff. The plural of anecdote is not data, and a couple people who've tried this are not a representative indication of whether this is safe or not. Diet is still not well understood, and current science, IMO, is too soft of a foundation upon which to build a complete meal replacement on. I'm sure this would be fine for the occasional use, but until some longitudinal studies are performed, I would be weary for long term usage.

maxerickson 13y ago
What aspect of nutrition do you think they are most likely to have screwed up?
jliptzin 13y ago
We've been feeding dogs and cats the same thing 2-3 times / day their whole lives and they seem quite happy.
- caublestone 13y ago
  Animals love Soylent too!
- DanBC 13y ago
  Cats often die from renal / urinary problems and cat food plays a large role in that.
ballard 13y ago
How can you judge something with blanket FUD you haven't seen, smelled or tasted yet? Give them a chance before condemning them.
_greim_ 13y ago
The bar Soylent needs to clear is not the ideal perfect diet that scientists may discover one day, but rather the diet of average joe in 2014. Not a very high bar.
acjohnson55 13y ago

krstck 13y ago

If we order now, will we still have ours shipped with the first batch? Or is it back logged? I'm excited about this. I love eating food but I really hate making it. If this proves adequate I can definitely see myself having this 5-6 days a week and then eating meals on the weekend with humans.

caublestone 13y ago
We ship orders based on size first and order date second. If you order a week today, that order will be placed at the back of the queue. If you order say 6 months, your order will be one of the first to go out.

hawkharris 13y ago

Soylent is betting on the fact that consumers want to separate the nourishment of food from the ritual of eating. That's a bit like saying, "We can offer you the ability to reproduce without the inconvenience of having sex." Don't get me wrong...I hope that this startup will succeed and prove me wrong. And to be fair, they aren't calling for people to abandon solid food. It's just that, as technical people, I think we sometimes overemphasize the efficiency of this product and underemphasize the cultural attitudes of everyday consumers.

dpapathanasiou 13y ago
"Soylent is betting on the fact that consumers want to separate the nourishment of food from the ritual of eating. That's a bit like saying, 'We can offer you the ability to reproduce without the inconvenience of having sex.'" This is the best criticism of soylent; what they're doing just goes against the grain of how peoples' minds are wired. Maybe it'll wind up gaining traction as a fad instead, like the meal replacement product on House of Lies[1] this past season[2]. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLPhbw0IBk8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLPhbw0IBk8 [2] When I saw that episode, I wondered if it was meant as a deliberate spoof of soylent.
- gfodor 13y ago
  Many people eat mediocre or plain food, particularly for lunch. If you could substitute something that was healthier and more convenient you're not exactly forgoing "sex" if you are replacing a turkey sandwich, fast food, etc.
- _greim_ 13y ago
  > This is the best criticism of soylent I disagree. With sex, the enjoyment can be had no matter what, while the biological part (reproduction) is optional. But with food, it's often a mutually exclusive choice between enjoyment and biology (proper nutrition). Especially when you have three dollars and ten minutes to spare. So it isn't quite a valid comparison.
- pbreit 13y ago
  People's minds are wired basically to get whatever food they need to remain alive so I'm not sure quite what you mean. They are also wired to optimize repetitive actions.

MattGrommes 13y ago

I've been extremely skeptical of Soylent but I do think I'm going to try it after a few months of guinea pigs have gone before me. I'm curious about using it as a way of breaking a habit of eating shitty foods. The idea of going cold turkey off "food" completely for awhile and seeing it that will help cause a break in my eating habits is pretty compelling.

goofygrin 13y ago
This is exactly my plan and need as well. 7pm and no dinner plans? Instead of take out... Have a soylent.

mynameishere 13y ago

If all else fails, they can sell it to prisons as disciplinary rations. I honestly can't fathom who would want such a bad product--aside from people who have an active disdain towards eating. Also, potatoes are already nutritionally complete (minus B12 iirc), probably cheaper than this, and certainly better tasting.

microjesus 13y ago

Ever since bulking up, I eat ridiculously healthy. The amount of time and money that it takes to do this is insane. I've been waiting for this moment for a very long time. The fact that (as mentioned in comments) the space needed for this versus a full kitchen/pantry/appliances etc is nothing. Game on.

caublestone 13y ago
I put on 20lbs in 2 months. Having Soylent made it so easy to measure exactly how many calories I'm getting and how much protein and fat to add on top of the base formula (2k cals per 66oz). Others in the company went the paleo diet route and spent 5-7x more money and 10-12x more time on prep.

ballard 13y ago

I don't eat meat as I don't agree with either how it's produced or the suffering necessary to extract it. Right now, I mostly consume quick oats and protein powder for bulk caloric needs. Vitamins are a generally a waste of money so daily requirements are met by a balance of vegetables, nuts and legumes. If Soylent were viable and cheaper than Ensure, I'd consider it. But I'm unwilling to pay more for convenience as I can do better on my own for far cheaper.

deleted 13y ago

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lquist 13y ago

Reminds me of the xkcd packaging: http://xkcd.com/993/ http://xkcd.com/993/

caublestone 13y ago
Exactly.

arasmussen 13y ago

Soylent and Bitcoin are the two things that I am quite positive will be a remarkably large part of our future. The biggest feedback I get about Soylent are the following: - What if it doesn't taste good? - But I enjoy eating real food... We'll find out soon about the first and, frankly, the latter simply doesn't apply to a very large number of people. Soylent is perfect for people who are short of one of two quite valuable things: time and money. Time: When's the last time you thought or heard "man, I wish the day had 10 more hours in it"? Soylent won't buy you 10, but I'd say it'll easily buy you one at the very least. All of a sudden you don't even have to think about grocery shopping or where you're going to go on your lunch break. You now get to spend your grocery evening doing whatever you want because you have Soylent. You can spend your lunch break working and get 45 minutes more done every day, or doing something you really enjoy. Money: Given all the recent posts about what percentage of people own what percentage of money, it's clear that there are a large number of people who are not well off. There are people in third world countries who are not and will never be well off. Soylent will probably be able to feed them the most nutritious meal they've had in a long time for very cheap. They're at about $3 per meal right now and I'd imagine the majority of their focus has been on scaling infrastructure, not pushing the price point. Imagine when the get into manufacturing ingredients themselves, the price point could be much lower. That would be revolutionary if we could feed entire countries more nutritious meals for far less money. I can't wait until I get my Soylent. Hopefully it tastes as great as they advertise. :P

rtpg 13y ago
I love my lunch break, lunch isn't just about eating. The price aspect can be interesting , but I really don't need an excuse for my boss to get rid of my lunch break