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I already did: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8887167 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8887167 What if Ensure had a cool name and didn't carry connot

I already did: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8887167 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8887167 What if Ensure had a cool name and didn't carry connotations of age and disease? What if it was sexily marketed? What if it was easy to flavour and make delicious? What if you signed up for a subscription and never thought about it again? What if you got it from vending machines that were everywhere you went and recognised you as you approached, having a glass perfectly formulated to your tastes and needs at that precise moment ready? What if it came out of a tap? What if your home 3D printer could form it into a multitude of shapes and textures (bar, cookie, cereal) and it would still be nutritionally balanced? What if it was surrounded by a devoted and inventive community of DIY hackers? What if the creator of Ensure was rapidly iterating it and discussing engineering microbes to produce pure versions of it? Oh, or is it easier, instead of using your imagination and a bit of enthusiasm, to point to how it's similar to a crappy product that nobody bothered to market, and imply that it won't be sucessful - because we all know the success and impact of a product has nothing to do with the creativity, perserverance and vision of the creators, right?

philwelch 12y ago
I can go to the drugstore and get a day's nutrition worth of Ensure right now. How long is the waiting list for Soylent? Because it turns out that actually having product available is like, step 0 of marketing. Besides, I already conceded that Soylent is marketed to hipsters. If its creators had "creativity" or "vision", they wouldn't have reinvented Ensure. It's marketing over substance.
0xDOOD 12y ago
>What if Ensure had a cool name and didn't carry connotations of age and disease? "Soylent" carries connotations of being made of the ground up corpses of the poor, so... > What if it was easy to flavour and make delicious? Is it easier to do with Soylent than Ensure, or any other drink? You can put sugar into anything, and "delicious" is relative. > What if you signed up for a subscription and never thought about it again? Other services offer food delivery, and arguably, just going to the store is often more convenient and cost effective. >What if you got it from vending machines that were everywhere you went and recognised you as you approached, having a glass perfectly formulated to your tastes and needs at that precise moment ready? Soylent doesn't have vending machines networked to some sort of facial-recognition AI. >What if it came out of a tap? Soylent doesn't come out of a tap. > What if your home 3D printer could form it into a multitude of shapes and textures (bar, cookie, cereal) and it would still be nutritionally balanced? That's an argument for the transformational nature of 3d printing, not Soylent. > or is it easier, instead of using your imagination and a bit of enthusiasm, to point to how it's similar to a crappy product that nobody bothered to market, and imply that it won't be sucessful - because we all know the success and impact of a product has nothing to do with the creativity, perserverance and vision of the creators, right? It is similar. Everything you've mentioned about how revolutionary Soylent is, appears to be either marketing hype (Ensure doesn't iterate, it isn't hip, it's associated with old people, etc etc) or pie-in-the-sky stuff that doesn't even relate to Soylent as a product, and doesn't even exist. The argument that the Soylent which actually exists is basically Ensure for hipsters still seems valid.
- jasonisalive 12y ago
  Are you really stupid? Read Rob's blog. Everything I've mentioned is stuff he's discussed implementing. If you don't believe that he will or can do it, whatever, but he appears totally serious to me. I for one think he's visionary, and comparison with a crap product (Ensure isn't vegan, it has too much sugar) from the old food system is just stupid. What matters is someone seeing the potential and working towards that in the long-term - my main question for you is how can you be reading this site and be so blind to that fact?
  - DanBC 12y ago
    The downvotes are asking you to moderate your tone.
  - philwelch 12y ago
    Marketing hype. If you look at what the substance of Soylent is, and what the product actually accomplishes, it's basically Ensure, except marketed to hipsters instead of the sick and elderly. The fact that the founder can write science-fiction blog posts about facial recognition based vending machines and 3D printing? Big deal. Writing science-fiction blog posts about stuff you want to invent is the easy part.
  - dang 12y ago
    > Are you really stupid? Personal attacks are not allowed here. Please follow the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

philwelch 12y ago

I can go to the drugstore and get a day's nutrition worth of Ensure right now. How long is the waiting list for Soylent? Because it turns out that actually having product available is like, step 0 of marketing. Besides, I already conceded that Soylent is marketed to hipsters. If its creators had "creativity" or "vision", they wouldn't have reinvented Ensure. It's marketing over substance.

0xDOOD 12y ago

>What if Ensure had a cool name and didn't carry connotations of age and disease? "Soylent" carries connotations of being made of the ground up corpses of the poor, so... > What if it was easy to flavour and make delicious? Is it easier to do with Soylent than Ensure, or any other drink? You can put sugar into anything, and "delicious" is relative. > What if you signed up for a subscription and never thought about it again? Other services offer food delivery, and arguably, just going to the store is often more convenient and cost effective. >What if you got it from vending machines that were everywhere you went and recognised you as you approached, having a glass perfectly formulated to your tastes and needs at that precise moment ready? Soylent doesn't have vending machines networked to some sort of facial-recognition AI. >What if it came out of a tap? Soylent doesn't come out of a tap. > What if your home 3D printer could form it into a multitude of shapes and textures (bar, cookie, cereal) and it would still be nutritionally balanced? That's an argument for the transformational nature of 3d printing, not Soylent. > or is it easier, instead of using your imagination and a bit of enthusiasm, to point to how it's similar to a crappy product that nobody bothered to market, and imply that it won't be sucessful - because we all know the success and impact of a product has nothing to do with the creativity, perserverance and vision of the creators, right? It is similar. Everything you've mentioned about how revolutionary Soylent is, appears to be either marketing hype (Ensure doesn't iterate, it isn't hip, it's associated with old people, etc etc) or pie-in-the-sky stuff that doesn't even relate to Soylent as a product, and doesn't even exist. The argument that the Soylent which actually exists is basically Ensure for hipsters still seems valid.

jasonisalive 12y ago
Are you really stupid? Read Rob's blog. Everything I've mentioned is stuff he's discussed implementing. If you don't believe that he will or can do it, whatever, but he appears totally serious to me. I for one think he's visionary, and comparison with a crap product (Ensure isn't vegan, it has too much sugar) from the old food system is just stupid. What matters is someone seeing the potential and working towards that in the long-term - my main question for you is how can you be reading this site and be so blind to that fact?
- DanBC 12y ago
  The downvotes are asking you to moderate your tone.
- philwelch 12y ago
  Marketing hype. If you look at what the substance of Soylent is, and what the product actually accomplishes, it's basically Ensure, except marketed to hipsters instead of the sick and elderly. The fact that the founder can write science-fiction blog posts about facial recognition based vending machines and 3D printing? Big deal. Writing science-fiction blog posts about stuff you want to invent is the easy part.
- dang 12y ago
  > Are you really stupid? Personal attacks are not allowed here. Please follow the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html