
Orders projected to begin shipping 4/21 - jack-r-abbit
http://blog.soylent.me/post/82129644711/weekly-update-4-8
======
quaunaut
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
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
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
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
Because that approach is fantastically irresponsible and existing companies
don't want the legal hassle.

~~~
pbreit
I don't know that it's irresponsible, much less fantastically so. The legal
angle is a good one and why upstarts can continue to outwit the incumbents
(discount them at your peril).

------
hawkharris
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
" _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.

~~~
pbreit
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.

------
arasmussen
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
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

------
overload119
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-3...](http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/blog/soylent-no-food-for-30-days)

[3] [http://gawker.com/we-drank-soylent-the-weird-food-of-the-
fut...](http://gawker.com/we-drank-soylent-the-weird-food-of-the-
future-510293401)

[4]
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/14/r...](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/)

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

------
SirensOfTitan
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.

~~~
jliptzin
We've been feeding dogs and cats the same thing 2-3 times / day their whole
lives and they seem quite happy.

~~~
DanBC
Cats often die from renal / urinary problems and cat food plays a large role
in that.

------
quasque
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-borderl...](https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/formulary/bnf/current/a2-borderline-
substances/a21-enteral-feeds-non-disease-specific), 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.

~~~
scrollaway
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
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.

~~~
scrollaway
There is hype because there is demand - demand that clearly isn't being
fulfilled by other products since most people do not know about them.

If anything, Soylent will serve to actually show that there is demand and push
other products to be more readily available to the public. If that doesn't
happen, well it's not really relevant in the first place.

It's kinda like the earlier article on flying car prototypes being there but
not affordable. They're not affordable because there's no demand, and there's
no demand because they're not affordable. Someone needs to break the cycle,
and when Tesla will break it, someone will not understand why the Tesla is
suddenly so popular for something that has existed for _years_.

~~~
quasque
Good points, I agree my complaint about the hype was rather misguided.

------
microjesus
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
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.

------
StavrosK
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?

~~~
canjobear
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
_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.

------
ballard
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.

------
MattGrommes
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
This is exactly my plan and need as well. 7pm and no dinner plans? Instead of
take out... Have a soylent.

------
lquist
Reminds me of the xkcd packaging: [http://xkcd.com/993/](http://xkcd.com/993/)

~~~
caublestone
Exactly.

------
mynameishere
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.

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

~~~
caublestone
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.

------
krstck
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
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.

------
acjohnson55
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
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-b...](http://blog.soylent.me/post/66807143901/this-morning-vices-brian-
merchant-published-a)

~~~
acjohnson55
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.

