It may be that people here are conservative and crusty, or it may be that we have learned some lessons -- for most of us, the hard way.
Exactly. Many of us were invested through the Asian contagion, the dot com meltdown, the subprime mortgage crash. Being invested in speculative stocks in those days was a sure recipe for heavy losses. During a boom, there will always be articles about savvy pros who are making phenomenal returns, leaving the old Buffets behind. And then the correction comes, and Buffet steps in. Some of us have learned to be a little wary of the stock rush du jour. In the dot com boom, many of the new e-business stocks had no earnings to speak of, only a lot of hype; they share something in common with the current bitcoin craze and the marijuana rush. When the boom ends and the stocks crash, there may well be some survivors, but during this speculative stage, who can tell?
Another point is that some of us have reached a level of security in which it is no longer necessary or even interesting to take big risks. We are content with 6-8% annual returns with a side order of 3-4% dividends. Why risk money on complete unknowns when the old stodgy style of buy and hold the stocks of solid established companies works? Buffet once said that utilities were not the best way to get rich, but a good way to stay rich (or something like that).
I feel a sense that "I have seen this show before." We might be getting closer to a market top in this cycle. Stocks are getting expensive. It is not a bad time for us stodgy old timers to sit back, raise some cash, enjoy the cash we have made, and watch for the next crash. Then we happily wade in to buy some more shares of great companies that are being sold off because of the latest wave of fear.
It's all about time, as 2 yen said, and maybe you younger investors simply need to go through it all yourselves, repeating history, before you will get it.