This author is really, really bitter. I've never tried Soylent, I'm not particularly interested, but it doesn't bother me that some people want cost-effective meal replacements.
I tried, I really did, but I could not find cohesive thesis or argument here. Just rhetoric comparing personal preference with mental illness (??). An intentionally inflammatory piece meant only to provoke ire and get a few hits... seems like Donald Trump's tactics are rubbing off on the folks on the other side of the pond. ;)
Edit: Oh. I forgot this is a thing. Writers being intentionally negative and provocative, belittling other cultures and groups (somewhat hypocritically?) to entertain other similarly negative people within their niche. Misery loves company.
The thesis is that Silicon Valley is repackaging unglamourous, tried-and-true ideas in hipster-friendly format, i.e., by disparaging the mainstream delivery of the equivalent services. The author asserts that this methodology is shallow, transparent, and elitist.
Soylent is Slimfast, Airbnb is vacation rental, Tinder is personals...
It is abrasive, but he's got a (rather recycled) point. I'm not sure if the abrasive tone is intrinsic or simply giving his target a taste of its own medicine. The Soylent snippets really are a little ridiculous. "The home manufacturing center had been by far the most liberating to eliminate..." Allow me to bear your burden of having a refrigerator...
I get turned off by a lot of technocrat stuff, too. I do think that Uber and Airbnb are novel ways of delivering old services. I huff at Airbnb when I get the marketing emails about being in a caring world and all that stuff.
The takeaway, for me, is that with the proliferation of all of this new tech, the average consumer is becoming more keen to grandiose claims. Don't tell me that Soylent is a revolution and that I ought to have ditched my oven; tell me why it's a better product than Slimfast, because that's what you're really up against.
I tried, I really did, but I could not find cohesive thesis or argument here. Just rhetoric comparing personal preference with mental illness (??). An intentionally inflammatory piece meant only to provoke ire and get a few hits... seems like Donald Trump's tactics are rubbing off on the folks on the other side of the pond. ;)
Edit: Oh. I forgot this is a thing. Writers being intentionally negative and provocative, belittling other cultures and groups (somewhat hypocritically?) to entertain other similarly negative people within their niche. Misery loves company.