I don't have a horse in this race one way or the other. I didn't back Soylent, I'm not for or against it, just an observer. But did you read that Herman guy's original comment[1]? He's borderline ranting from the outset. Amongst other ostensibly useful advice, he tells the Rob guy to include copper when he already did, the Rob guy gives a reply that seems to encourage further engagement but Herman does not respond. Herman then escalates and expands on his rant months later on reddit. Am I missing something that happened between Herman's orginal comment and his reddit rant?

I'm not disregarding what Herman says, he seems knowledgeable. But if you act like a dick, it's less likely that most people will really warm to your advice.

1. http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424#comment-514

Yes, he's a dick and he missed copper. I'm going to assign the dickishness to passion and the missed copper to missing copper in the list.

But his general point is still correct: a mix of foods trumps a formula, especially given population variations in requirement and uptake.

I'm encouraged by your optimism. Being a little cynical myself, I could just as easily have attributed his dickishness to arrogance/elitism and the missed copper to the possibility that his arrogance/elitism lead him to not even bother to finish reading the whole post before passing judgement and writing his original comment. :P He also missed the opportunity to provide further input. Not that's he's required to do so, but it's a bit disingenuous to not do so and then complain months later that you were ignored.

I do agree though that a mix of foods does seem to trump a formula, at least at our current level of understanding. And I can’t say I’d really be willing to make myself a guinea pig in this experiment at this juncture, but I’m still glad people are thinking about this issue and trying new things.