I would love to hear opinions from other HN users that would actually use this product. Clearly there are people that would love to forget about food--I don't understand the appeal myself.
I'm not good at caring about food. I hate doing groceries and cooking. Yet I still care about eating well.
A while ago I had a good reliable diet when I spent a few months with a good cafeteria at hands, but I don't have the motivation to shop and cook the proper meals myself everyday. My wife sometimes does it but I can't expect her to cook for me all the time. So then I end up at restaurants eating less-than-optimal food at a more expensive price.
Also when I travel, it's hard to maintain a good diet as you often don't have a choice in what you can eat and have to pick the best approximation you can from what's on the menu where you are.
So overall, Soylent is good for me because:
- At home, it's my baseline food. I know that I'll have at least 2 meals a day with proper caloric intake. Sometimes I'll eat all my day meals with Soylent, but most days I go eat with friends for 1 meal, or my wife insists on cooking something.
- On business trips, I can carry my food in my luggage and make sure I eat properly and maintain my routine.
It's just one less concern in life. I get the stability of a good baseline diet and I still have space for tasty stuff when I decide to take 1 less Soylent portion a day and go eat out instead. So it makes food enjoyable again. The chores part of food is gone: Soylent is a 2min task in my day. The fun part of food is back: when I eat out, I can focus on just enjoying the food.
I've not used Soylent, but I definitely would. All that's put me off in the past is the need to order large quantities of it before even knowing if I'll like it, and a big waiting list to even get it in the first place.
Seems like a lot of hassle and since the attraction of Soylent for me is precisely to avoid hassle and nothing intrinsic, I'm putting off trying it until they work this out (if that's not already happened, haven't checked recently).
Anyway, the appeal for me is summed up really well by this marketing quote, in the article:
> “During a typical week there’s several meals I eat alone in front of the TV, weekday dinners mostly. Those were usually fast food, or frozen or canned. So I thought Soylent would be faster, easier, and healthier than what I had been doing before."
That absolutely nails the appeal for me. I love food, I even enjoy cooking nice things occasionally. However, the the routine of cooking something quick and boring for only myself on just an average Tuesday evening, coupled with all the faff around planning, buying ingredients, taking things out of the freezer at the right times, cleaning up, etc, just to sustain myself in a healthy way, is something I'd love to substitute away with something like Soylent and spend that time doing things I enjoy more.
I've been doing Soylent for a month. I had the idea on a Saturday, placed my order and Tuesday morning I had 14 days worth of powder delivered, in Canada.
After 1 week of eating it, I was happy and subscribed for 28 bags a month. My wife likes it too, it's convenient when she doesn't have time to cook and wants something filling and healthy.
I commute on caltrain each morning, and it's a pain to prepare food that I can bring, and consume on the train without being a mess/distraction to other commuters.
Soylent works well for this purpose.
Other benefits: I have really bad TMJ, so any amount that I can reduce chewing in the day brings measurable relief.
I use it for lunch most days of the week. I know exactly how many calories I'm getting (useful if dieting) and it's convenient; I get back the 30 minutes I would have spent going to a restaurant / food truck.
