I have spent the last sixty years trying to understand the world. I have studied for two doctorates at Oxford and London and travelled through Nepal, Japan and China. Here I will describe what I have found about asking questions, guessing, testing, assembling evidence, creative writing and the conditions of creativity. Alan Macfarlane, F.B.A., is an Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Cambridge University and a Life Fellow of King's College. His website is alanmacfarlane.com