I think this is directionally right, though it’s worth noting that the EAs and GiveWell people also contributed their own culture which also has very good epistemics by normal standards; IMO the EAs/GiveWell people have epistemic practices that added useful ingredients to the epistemic culture around here. (This is consistent with your text if that’s who you mean by “everyone who was around in the old days”.)
Also I think a lot of this effect is a selection pressure for people who are particularly altruistic and interested in good epistemics, rather than causing people to become more reasonable (though the latter also happened)
I think this is directionally right, though it’s worth noting that the EAs and GiveWell people also contributed their own culture which also has very good epistemics by normal standards; IMO the EAs/GiveWell people have epistemic practices that added useful ingredients to the epistemic culture around here. (This is consistent with your text if that’s who you mean by “everyone who was around in the old days”.)
Also I think a lot of this effect is a selection pressure for people who are particularly altruistic and interested in good epistemics, rather than causing people to become more reasonable (though the latter also happened)