In the 21st century, vastly more people will need to gain sustainable livelihoods in difficult environments. For this, changes are needed on the part of outsiders – professionals, officials, and others – who have overlooked or underestimated the complexity and diversity of rural conditions, rural people’s ability to take a long‐term view, and their knowledge, creativity, and competence in presenting and analysing complex information. To serve poor people better, much of the challenge now is methodological: for better learning from, with, and by rural people, for enabling them to express and enhance their competence and creativity; and for the improvement and spread of new methods for changing the behaviour and attitudes of outsiders.