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Comment by amsilprotag | Hacker News Reader

There is a schism on this site between the entrepreneurs and the technologists. The entrepreneurs will tell you that what Soylent did was hard. They found a population that would enjoy a nutritional supplement, but didn't like the branding of current offerings. The created and popularized a brand to serve busy, health-conscious professionals.

The technologist will tell you that Soylent is essentially a direct marketing business that mixes commodities (poorly) and sells them at high markup.

A similar narrative has existed in business news for the past year, where readers bemusedly read about a pyramid scheme company that distributes protein shake called Herbalife to see whether it will implode or not.

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Hey.

Herbalife isn't a pyramid scheme.

It's a dimaryp!

In case people somehow missed it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MwGeOm8iI

So amusing.

(Somewhat surprised the average person hasn't gotten the memo after X decades)

Luckily for pyramid and ponzi schemes, there are new average people being born every decade.

It's the opposite of dimaryp - pyramid

Or a trapezoid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuVh36vQkSI

Also, some of us remember the misleading claims from when Soylent was first in development. I because pretty negative on the product from those early posts fully of hype.

I don't doubt you at all but can you give some examples? I remember them saying "it should be a total replacement for food" but I hear they are backing off of that now.

Purely anecdotal but I suffer from Crohn's Disease and the only thing that really helped was Soylent. I can't eat solid food and since starting Soylent I have experienced much lower occurrences of symptoms.

Was Soylent the only liquid you tried that aspires to complete nutrition?

For example, have you tried Ensure?

Also, how long has it continued to help? I ask because it is fairly easy to find interventions that help a chronic illness, but then stop working or accumulate prohibitive adverse effects after a few months.

I have only tried Soylent. I have a very restrictive diet and Soylent is the only liquid that fits my requirements. It's worked for about 3 months so far.

there are times I think we are just anti-success. as in, its okay to get certain rewards, get to a certain size, and then suddenly the community turns on you.

I am guilty of this at times, there are certain companies I cheer on yet I have to sit back and wonder why others I vilify. Is it the personalities at top or the actions of the companies as a whole?

As a sidenote, Herbalife started as a pyramid scheme but has evolved its business model beyond it. This article on the fight between Bill Ackman and Herbalife (http://fortune.com/2015/09/09/the-siege-of-herbalife/) is a good summary of Herbalife's history and its current approach.

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