I've found that people who don't cook regularly often overestimate how difficult it is to cook at home. Sure you can go big and cook extravagant meals that take loads of prep time and cook time, but you can also saute some fish filets and some vegetables in 20 minutes start to finish - and most of that time you're still free to do other things around the house.

Of course this advice might not apply in a 400 sq. ft. NYC studio without two burners and room for two pans, but for most people that's not the issue.

Very true. About 2 years ago I forced myself to learn to cook and it has paid off immensely. I know enjoy it very much, and find cooking a healthy delicious meal to be a quick and painless affair.

I cooked for myself for a while in college. I'm not sure if a mash up of pasta, tomato sauce, frozen veggies, and boiled chicken thighs counts as "healthy", but that's pretty much what I had every day.

I know how to pan sear a fish and stir fry vegetables, but what I didn't know was how to do grocery shopping for 1 without ending up with wasted/spoiled food. For me, it's not the cooking that's hard, it's the grocery shopping/meal planning.

I like that you mentioned foresight and cooking infrastructure. Many people don't realize that making home cooked meals consistently throughout the week actually takes quite a bit of planning and not everyone has mastered this art... probably why the creators of Soylent felt there was a market niche for this product (easy, affordable, and "healthy?").

These are exactly the shortcuts and "cooking infrastructures" we're designing for busy people and families at Meal Garden (http://www.mealgarden.com). If healthy rated meals can easily be procured or prepared we wouldn't need bandaid solutions like Soylent.

I agree that cooking at home is often easier than you might expect, but when comparing cooking at home vs. mixing a drink or ordering from a waiter there's a clear difference on the "effort and time" scales we are talking about.