That's not how I read it. Index funds are conservative, but the author points out a big difference between the optimism + paranoia ideal mindset vs. the conservative mindset. With index funds, you'll never go poor, but you'll never be wealthy either unless you earn a top 0.5% income. The returns (~6% historically) are too low for compounding to make one wealthy in a lifetime. To become wealthy you need to either own a very rare skill that is compensated in the millions per year, or you need to earn better returns through carefully calculated risk-taking. I'm taking the latter route with Grizzly Bulls as there's nothing extraordinary about my skill set.