硅谷工作狂青睞液體營養餐

SAN FRANCISCO — Every night, Aaron Melocik, a software developer, follows a precise food routine. He blends together half a gallon of water, three and a half tablespoons of macadamia nut oil and a 16-ounce bag of powder called Schmoylent. Then he pours the beige beverage into jars and chills them before bringing the containers to work the next day at Metrodigi, an education technology start-up.

舊金山——每天晚上，軟件開發者埃倫·梅洛西克(Aaron Melocik)都會遵守一套嚴格的飲食流程。他會把0.5加侖（約合2.275升）水、3.5湯匙澳洲堅果油和一袋16盎司（約合453克）的Schmoylent粉末混合在一起。然後，他把這種米黃色的飲品裝進罐子，冷藏起來，第二天再把它們帶去上班。他在教育科技初創公司Metrodigi工作。

At the office, Mr. Melocik stashes one Schmoylent jar in the refrigerator and takes the other to his desk. From 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., he sips from the first jar for breakfast, and the second for lunch. He consumes about 14 fluid ounces of Schmoylent each day so he can focus on coding instead of grabbing a bite to eat.

到辦公室以後，梅洛西克把一罐Schmoylent放進冰箱，然後把另一罐放到辦公桌上。從早晨6點半到下午3點半，他會把第一罐當早餐，第二罐當午餐。每天，他都要喝掉大約14液盎司的Schmoylent，這樣他就可以把注意力放在編程上面，而不是去找東西吃。

“It just removes food completely from my morning equation up until about 7 p.m.,” said Mr. Melocik, 34, who has been following his techie diet since February.

“如此一來，從早晨直到大約晚上7點，我都不用考慮吃的問題了，”34歲的梅洛西克說。自2月以來，他一直在按照自己的這套技術宅食譜進食。

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.

處在繁榮時期的硅谷需要人們努力工作，而努力工作——至少在科技領域——意味着程序員、工程師和風投資本家要轉而食用Schmoylent、Soylent、Schmilk和People Chow等液態食物。這些富含蛋白質的粉末狀產品價格不高，製作起來也方便快捷——加水攪拌即可；或者像Schmilk這樣加牛奶攪拌。運動員和節食者多年前就已經在食用液態晚餐，現在越來越多硅谷員工也開始用喝這種東西代替吃飯，以便能以更快的速度回到電腦前工作。

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.

其中一些粉末飲品——這些粉末通常含有鎂、鋅和維生素等營養物——的需求量非常大，有些工程師甚至說，他們需要等待一至六個月才能收到第一批訂貨。這種飲品在技術人員的社交圈內非常火爆。風投資本家也在向提供這種代餐品的公司注資，Reddit聯合創始人阿萊克西斯·歐海尼安(Alexis Ohanian)等投資者都表示自己是此類飲品的粉絲。

“My dream in an ideal scenario would be if I could just pick up some at the airport, pre-made in the refrigerator section,” said Mr. Ohanian, who invested in Soylent and treats the drink as a fallback meal. The entrepreneur, who frequently flies between New York and San Francisco for work, says he will whip up a batch of Soylent and sip it throughout the day when he is too lazy to make something to eat.

“我心目中的理想情形是可以在機場的冷藏區買到事先調製好的這種飲品，”投資了Soylent的歐海尼安說。他認爲這種飲品是一種備用食物。因爲工作，這位創業家經常在紐約和舊金山之間飛來飛去。他說，當他懶得做東西吃的時候，他就會調製一些Soylent，然後喝一整天。

In March, the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz served Soylent-inis and Soylent Whites at a cocktail event at the South by Southwest conference in Austin. Some members of the firm, which has invested in Soylent, have even gone on a Soylent cleanse, drinking only the liquid for several days, said Chris Dixon, an Andreessen Horowitz partner. He said he was not a participant.

3月，風投公司安德森-霍洛維茨(Andreessen Horowitz) 在奧斯汀“西南偏南”（South by Southwest，簡稱SXSW）大會的一次雞尾酒活動上，爲賓客準備了Soylent天尼(Soylent-inis)和Soylent白(Soylent Whites)。安德森-霍洛維茨合夥人克里斯·迪克森(Chris Dixon)說，作爲Soylent的投資人，這家公司的一些人甚至進行了一次“Soylent排毒食療”，連續幾天只喝這種液體。他說自己並未參與其中。

Other coders are customizing the meal replacements to social occasions. On a recent Saturday evening in his Ikea-furnished apartment in San Francisco’s Haight neighborhood, Pulak “Potluck” Mittal, a 23-year-old software engineer, hosted a dinner party for half a dozen techie friends. On the menu were pad thai noodles and a side dish of Soylent.

一些程序員還對這種代餐食品加以改造，把它用在了社交場合上。最近一個週六的夜晚，在位於舊金山海特(Haight)街區的一所滿是宜家(Ikea)傢俱的公寓裏，23 歲的軟件工程師“波特拉克”普拉克·米塔爾（Pulak “Potluck” Mittal，Potluck是一種每人各出一道菜的聚餐會。——譯註）爲六個技術圈的朋友舉辦了一次晚宴。菜單上是金邊粉和用Soylent做的佐餐。

One attendee, Dan Carroll, founder of the education tech start-up Clever, complimented Mr. Mittal for mixing peanut butter into the oatmeal-colored drink to accompany the pad thai. “That was very thoughtful, that you really tailored the Soylent experience to the food,” Mr. Carroll said.

教育科技初創公司Clever的創始人丹·卡羅爾(Dan Carroll)也參加了這次活動，他對米塔爾在這種燕麥色的飲品中加入花生醬來搭配金邊粉的做法表示了讚揚。“非常有想法，你真的把Soylent的體驗跟食物搭配起來了，”卡羅爾說。

The rise of the meal replacements mirrors Silicon Valley’s start-up froth — and includes a dose of confidence. The makers of the new drinks said their products were better than the commercial powders that had been on the market for years, because those tended to have lots of sugar and overemphasized the use of protein. In contrast, Soylent and Schmoylent are both blends of nutrients that would allow one to drink only those meals and live a healthy life, they said.

這種代餐食品的興起反映了硅谷的創業狂熱——其中還帶有一絲自信。這種新式飲品的製造者稱，他們的產品比多年來市場上銷售的那些量產粉末更好，因爲那些粉末往往含糖量很高，而且過分強調蛋白質的使用。他們表示，相比之下，Soylent和Schmoylent都由營養物混合而成，人們只需喝這種飲品就能保持健康。

Rob Rhinehart, a software engineer, said he came up with the idea for Soylent in 2013 while working long hours at a wireless communications company and realizing he was eating poorly. He said he wanted to create something that could be “universally applicable” for hard-working people like himself. So he founded Soylent, based in Los Angeles, that year and gained more than $3 million in funding from the crowdsourcing site Tilt.

軟件工程師羅伯·萊恩哈特(Rob Rhinehart)說，他是在2013年產生做Soylent的想法的。當時他在一家無線通訊公司的工作時間很長，並意識到自己吃得很糟。他說，他想爲像自己一樣辛苦工作的人制造一種“普遍適用”的東西。所以他當年在洛杉磯創立了Soylent，並且從衆包網站Tilt上獲得了超過300萬美元（約合1860萬元人民幣）的資金。

Orders took off quickly. The company said it had shipped more than the equivalent of six million “meals” across the United States. Mr. Rhinehart decLined to share financial details but said his company was shipping “at the kiloton scale” each quarter and had attracted $24.5 million in financing. While Soylent has a diverse customer base, tech workers in particular have the “early-adopter personality” that makes them open to trying the powder, Mr. Rhinehart said.

訂單增加得非常快。公司稱，他們目前已經把超過相當於600萬頓“飯”的產品運到了美國各地。萊恩哈特拒絕透露更多的財務細節，但是說他的公司每個季度的出貨量可“以千噸計算”，並且已經吸引了2450萬美元的投資。萊恩哈特說，儘管Soylent的客戶羣多種多樣，但科技業者由於具有“愛嚐鮮的人格”，所以願意嘗試這種粉末。

Soylent’s success has created opportunity for imitators, who are mixing and marketing their own powders. Alex C. Snyder, known on Internet forums as “Axcho,” quit his job at the software company Linden Lab last August to sell his own variants of Soylent, like Schmoylent and Schmilk. Many of his repeat customers in the San Francisco Bay Area work in technology.

Soylent的成功給模仿者創造了機會，這些模仿者也在調製和銷售自己的粉末。去年8月，亞歷克斯·C·斯奈德(Alex C. Snyder)——在網絡論壇上名叫Axcho——辭去軟件公司林登實驗室(Linden Lab)的工作，開始售賣自己生產的類Soylent產品，比如Schmoylent和Schmilk。他在舊金山灣區的許多回頭客都在科技領域工作。

Mr. Snyder said he was sometimes puzzled by the sales of the products that were in plastic bags and labeled with a sharpie, which made them look “sketchy.”

斯奈德說，他有時會爲產品的銷售感到很困惑，這些產品被裝在塑料袋裏，上面用記號筆畫上標籤，所以看上去有點“糙”。

“I was like, why are people even buying?” Mr. Snyder said, reflecting back about a year to the time when orders started pouring in. “It was really weird.”

“我當時就想，人們爲什麼要買呢？” 斯奈德回想起大約一年前訂單開始猛增的時候說。“真是奇怪。”

With the demand, he said his company — which he plans to call Super Body Fuel — would move its production operation to a large warehouse in June, upgrading from a co-working space in San Francisco’s Mission District.

隨着需求增加，他說他的公司——他打算給公司起名叫“超級身體燃料” (Super Body Fuel)——6月將把生產環節轉移到一個大倉庫，離開現在這個舊金山教會區的共享式工作空間。

Soylent, Schmilk and some others typically taste like bland, gritty pancake batter. But never mind that, since the meal replacements save techies money and time. While a meal generally costs upward of $50 at Silicon Valley-area restaurants, a week’s worth of Soylent or Schmoylent totals $85.

Soylent、Schmilk和其他一些產品一般吃起來都像是味道寡淡的煎餅麪糊。但這並不要緊，因爲這種代餐食品爲技術人員節省了金錢和時間。一般而言，在硅谷區的餐廳吃一頓飯至少要花50美元以上，而吃一週Soylent或Schmoylent的總花銷只需要85美元。

Alexandros Kostibas, a founder of Habit Monster, a San Francisco software start-up that nearly went bankrupt recently because of high costs, said he paid himself less than he paid his employees, and he guzzled Soylent partly because it was more economical than eating out. He said a frozen dinner was already a shortcut, but Soylent was a healthier, quicker alternative.

習慣怪物(Habit Monster)是舊金山的一家軟件初創公司，由於成本太高，該公司最近幾乎瀕臨破產。其創始人亞歷山德羅斯·科斯提巴斯(Alexandros Kostibas)稱，他付給員工的工資都比他付給自己的多，他之所以大量食用Soylent，部分原因是它比在外面吃更實惠。他說，吃冷凍餐點已經很省事了，但Soylent是一種更健康、更便捷的選擇。

“I think engineers are ready to throw in the towel on the illusion that we’re having this family dinner,” he said. “Let’s do away with all the marketing facade and get the calories as quickly as we can.”

“我認爲，工程師已經對享用家庭晚餐不抱任何幻想了，”他說。“我們也別管什麼營銷包裝，就是儘可能快地獲取卡路里。”

The time wasted by eating is, in Silicon Valley parlance, a “pain point” even for the highest echelon of techie. Elon Musk, Tesla’s founder, once said, “If there was a way that I couldn’t eat so I could work more, I would not eat. I wish there was a way to get nutrients without sitting down for a meal,” according to a new book on the entrepreneur, written by Ashlee Vance. Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment about whether he had tried Schmilk or Soylent.

用硅谷的話說，即使對於級別最高的技術人員，吃飯所花的時間也是一個“痛點”。根據阿什莉·萬斯(Ashlee Vance)撰寫的一本關於特斯拉(Tesla)創始人埃隆·馬斯克(Elon Musk)的新書，馬斯克曾經表示，“如果有什麼方法可以不吃飯，從而做更多工作，那我寧願不吃飯。我希望有辦法可以讓我不坐下來吃飯就能獲得營養。”對於是否嘗試過Schmilk或Soylent的問題 ，馬斯克沒有迴應。

When Mr. Mittal started working at Clever this year, the company declared in an email introducing him to colleagues that he was an avid Soylent user. Soon after, Mr. Mittal said, some co-workers approached him to ask if they could try some.

當米塔爾今年開始在Clever上班時，公司在把他介紹給其他同事的郵件中說，他對Soylent非常着迷。米塔爾說，不久就有一些同事來找他，問是否可以嘗試一下。

“I’ve been a little bit of a Soylent dealer to a number of my co-workers,” Mr. Mittal said.

米塔爾說：“對於許多同事，我已經有點像是Soylent販子了。”

But Soylent, Schmilk and Schmoylent are acquired tastes. Mr. Mittal said many of his colleagues did not end up getting hooked on Soylent. The few who were still drinking it weren’t too enthusiastic.

但是， Soylent、Schmilk和Schmoylent的味道都需要適應。米塔爾說，他的許多同事最後都沒有養成食用Soylent的習慣。僅有的幾個仍然在喝它們的人也不是很熱衷。

“I am getting sick of the taste,” Dan Sparks, an engineer for Clever, recently told Mr. Mittal. “I am thinking I’ll have to start flavoring it.”

“我已經煩死這種味道了，”Clever的工程師 丹·斯帕克斯(Dan Sparks)最近對米塔爾說，“我在想，我得開始給它加點味道才行。”