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Boom times in Silicon Valley call for hard work, and hard work — at least in technology land — means that coders, engineers and venture capitalists are turning to liquid meals with names like Schmoylent, Soylent, Schmilk and People Chow. The protein-packed products that come in powder form are inexpensive and quick and easy to make — just shake with water, or in the case of Schmilk, milk. While athletes and dieters have been drinking their dinner for years, Silicon Valley's workers are now increasingly chugging their meals, too, so they can more quickly get back to their computer work.
Demand for some of the powdered drinks, which typically mix nutrients like magnesium, zinc and vitamins, is so high that some engineers report being put on waiting lists of one to six months to receive their first orders. And the drinks are taking off across techie social circles. Venture capitalists have also poured money into the companies that offer the meal replacements, and investors including Alexis Ohanian, a founder of Reddit, count themselves as fans of the drinks.
[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @01:10PM
> I can't imagine being so busy that I would give up food.
While I am sure there are some people who use it for that, I'd say 99% do not.
It is about avoiding bad food. The modern american diet is shit. Especially for people putting in a lot of hours at the office. By giving up the effort of worrying about what food to choose, they don't have to worry about making poor choices out of convenience, cravings or marketing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @01:15PM
So instead they drink something that looks and apparently taste like liquid sludge. Mmmmmmmmm ... Yummy in the tummy.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday May 27 2015, @01:22PM
The word you're looking for is "optimal". It is optimal nutrition for the quantified self. Soylent is necessary for enlightenment. If the Buddha was around, he would choose Soylent.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by KGIII on Wednesday May 27 2015, @10:49PM
I am slowly working that path, enlightenment - I am a Buddhist, and I do not think Buddha (heh, which one? :D) would drink that. His enlightenment came AFTER he realized that doing stupid crap is, well, doing stupid crap and not enlightened. That would include drinking Ensure instead of eating. Not because Ensure is bad, it may be, but because finding pleasure in a meal is a good thing. Now he would probably have been pragmatic if Ensure was the only thing he had and it being the only thing he had he might have found it good. I am a bit skeptical about my attempt to ascribe to Buddha what I do not know so I will couch this by stating that the above is my opinion.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @10:55PM
Does your buddha say that you must take pleasure everywhere it is possible?
Maybe he does, given how he's so often depicted as a jolly fat man.
(Score: 1) by KGIII on Thursday May 28 2015, @12:43AM
Everywhere does imply no moderation, so, it would be unlikely. Moderation doesn't mean dissatisfaction intentionally. One could choose to drink these things but the reason is important as is the result.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @01:33PM
> So instead they drink something that looks and apparently taste like liquid sludge.
As someone who is drinking soylent on a regular basis, it isn't anything like that.
It looks and tastes like a vanilla milkshake. You can add flavoring, I like the "cookies and cream" syrup I found at the grocery.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday May 27 2015, @01:41PM
Which then begs the question. Why do you do it? Is it health reasons? Time reasons? Saving money? Why do you feel the need to replace cooking and eating with a shake?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @01:48PM
Exactly for the reasons I've already given - to make it easier to avoid bad choices.
In the past I used a personal chef but I found that the amount of variety actually encouraged cravings, I'd eat the right food and then go out and buy crap. By taking the variety out of the equation I avoid the "tipping point" that kicks off cravings.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday May 27 2015, @01:53PM
A personal chef, eh? Celeb Soylent-drinking Soylentil perhaps?
I take it you factor the cookies n cream syrup into your nutritional accounting. Do you roll your own Soylent or get it mailed?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @02:00PM
> A personal chef, eh? Celeb Soylent-drinking Soylentil perhaps?
It was only marginally more expensive than one of those frozen diet meal plans like nutrisystem.
> I take it you factor the cookies n cream syrup into your nutritional accounting. Do you roll your own Soylent or get it mailed?
The syrup is zero-calorie.
I buy the premade soylent.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday May 27 2015, @03:01PM
I think there are a lot of people (mostly but not exclusively bachelors) who see cooking as an unpleasant chore rather than as a relaxing activity like I always have. As far as I can tell, these are people who never learned how to cook, and either content themselves with what they can heat up in a microwave or paying somebody else to do it for them. That means they miss out on the creativity and artistic aspect of it.
They also miss out because being a good cook is a great way to impress a (would-be) partner.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Informative) by urza9814 on Wednesday May 27 2015, @03:23PM
That argument can be applied to everything. Some people just aren't that into food, man...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @03:59PM
FINISH HIM
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anne Nonymous on Wednesday May 27 2015, @04:38PM
> they miss out on the creativity and artistic aspect of it.
says the guy whose sig line is
> Feed America - vote Donner Party 2016!
I'll pass on the dinner invitation, thanks.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday May 27 2015, @04:43PM
Well played. I hadn't even noticed that the serious comment and the joke sig were at odds.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @08:10PM
That isn't begging the question. Begging the question would be, for example, he drinks it for health reasons because it is so healthy. Or he drinks it as a time saving device because it saves him time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2015, @12:31AM
> That isn't begging the question.
Unfortunately you are wrong.
Language evolves and we are way past the point where begging the question only means making a circular argument. So many people have, and continue to, use it to mean "raises the question" that it now can mean both. I expect that in 20 more years the original meaning will be archaic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2015, @11:55AM
Ah, the standard retort of the ignorant: I don't understand a word and I use it wrong, but that's ok because "language evolves". Words have absolutely no meaning anymore because, well, language evolves and a word now means what I want it to mean.
You intellectual relativists are really something else.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2015, @11:04PM
I don't suppose you recognize the irony in the fact that your claim that his use of "begging the question" is correct because it now means that something else, that in itself is begging the question?