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🐴 The world's smartest woman solved the puzzle 1,000 PhDs got wrong

How Marilyn vos Savant's solution to the Monty Hall Problem reveals a fundamental flaw in how we teach children to think + why intellectual passivity is education's biggest problem

Author

Charlie Deist
May 20, 2025

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Before there was ChatGPT, before there was Google, there was Marilyn vos Savant – certified by Guinness World Records as having the highest IQ ever recorded at 228.

For decades, she's answered questions in her weekly Parade Magazine column, ranging from complex probability puzzles to philosophical inquiries about human nature. Yet her most valuable insights may be about our education system itself.

Yesterday's Trivia: The Monty Hall Showdown

In yesterday's newsletter, we asked you about the famous Monty Hall problem that once sparked a national controversy:

You're on a game show with three doors. Behind one door is a car; behind the others are goats. You pick Door #1. The host, who knows what's behind each door, opens Door #3 to reveal a goat. Should you stick with Door #1 or switch to Door #2?

Most of you either chose to stick with Door #1 or thought it doesn't matter which door you pick.

Most people instinctively believe it doesn't matter whether you switch or not. After all, there are now just two doors left, so it seems like a 50/50 chance. The car is either behind your original choice or the other remaining door—flip a coin, right? WRONG!

Vos Savant correctly stated that switching doors doubles your chances of winning—from 1/3 to 2/3.

Think of it this way: When you first picked a door, you had a 1/3 chance of being right. That means there's a 2/3 chance you picked wrong. Nothing about the host opening a door changes your original odds. If you initially picked wrong (which happens 2/3 of the time), switching will ALWAYS win. If you initially picked right (which happens 1/3 of the time), switching will ALWAYS lose. Since you're more likely to have picked wrong initially, switching is the better strategy.

The backlash to her explanation was immediate and fierce. Nearly 10,000 readers – including hundreds of "expert" mathematics professors – wrote in to tell her she was wrong. Many were condescending:

"You blew it, and you blew it big!" wrote one Ph.D. from the University of Florida.

Some even suggested gender played a role: "Maybe women look at math problems differently than men."

Despite the overwhelming criticism, vos Savant stood firm. She encouraged readers to test it themselves by running simulations. Computer models added evidence to her logical proof, and many critics eventually admitted their error.

But this wasn't just about a math problem. The controversy revealed something deeper about how we learn and think.

Lesson 1: Standardized Schooling Creates Intellectual Passivity

"One of the problems is compulsory schooling," vos Savant explains, "Children are sitting there and they are taught and told what to believe. They are passive from the very beginning."

The highest measured intelligence in history pinpoints a fundamental contradiction in education: Our system treats all children as identical units in an assembly line, processing them through the same curriculum at the same pace regardless of their unique abilities, interests, or learning styles. Yet children are wildly different from one another—some visual, some verbal, some fast, some methodical, all curious in their own ways.

This one-size-fits-all approach doesn't just fail to serve individual needs; it actively damages children's natural learning instincts. Traditional schooling methodically replaces active exploration with passive absorption in the name of standardization.

The result? "They never learn to think independently."

Want to Learn More?

Vos Savant's critique of education goes much deeper than this one insight. On our blog, we explore four additional lessons from the world's smartest person, including:

  • Why "intellectual aggression" is essential for true intelligence

  • How multiple sources create critical thinkers

  • The surprising connection between permissiveness and intellectual development

  • Why motivation matters more than natural ability

What aspects of your child's education help them think independently? Share your thoughts by replying to this email.

That’s all for today!

– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)

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