yeah definitely not a good look on their part. But instead, they just used it as a PR opportunity to make it seem like everything was their idea at every step when it wasn't, and when the original subject was 'can you trust us' and that's how they presented it, when, as it turns out, they left stuff out. It wouldn't be shady had they just admitted it. It's super manipulative and not very cool, and the irony of a video on that subject winding up proving that they can't be trusted and there are things going on behind the scenes can't be understated. Especially since another part of the problem was Kurzgesagt did this all in a video called 'Can you Trust us' or whatever which was basically about how awesome they are for doing this, that they don't have to do this, but they're doing it anyway because of how awesome they are and you should totally love them for not, with no mention of Coffee Break anywhere and how it obviously inspired that. The whole problem is them trying to get kudos for something that wasn't their idea or anything to begin with. When it was Coffee Break that pointed out the flaws, and asked them about what was going on there, but at the same, they were all just like 'good enough' and made no mention of working on a video like this, or that they would take down the incorrect videos, or anything, when they almost certainly were planning on those things at the time because of the timeline. They acted like it was completely their idea, that they did out of the goodness of their own hearts/their own personal review of their videos. The shady part is not mentioning Coffee Break at all in this. might have some merit, but as detailed above, CB himself has some choice flourishes and video subjects that might make one express some doubt. being deliberately misleading in their content itself, as opposed to a nominal shadiness in how they conduct and present the channel, particularly in relation to smaller creators that might potentially question them. sought to get out ahead of him in noting the issues in prior videos, denying him all credit while getting to further paint themselves as so honest for being 'upfront' about their flaws (after prompting from an undisclosed source).

told them to wait until early March - when the 'In a Nutshell' video went up. CB inquired about getting to do an interview to maybe discuss and air out these issues, Kurz. realised they'd made something of a mistake (if they hadn't already and just realised there was a pressure to set the record straight now). So CB sent them an email about it, at which point Kurz. Basically, they'd sourced some of Hari's work on addiction as the basis for their video, seemingly unaware of the flaws in it.

Kurzgesagt coffee break email