The Monty Hall Problem: How Marilyn vos Savant Proved the World Wrong 🧠

Marilyn vos Savant has this mind-blowing IQ of 228. Way higher than Einstein's, Hawking's, or Musk's. She got caught in this wild mathematical storm that kind of showed how smart she really is. And how our gut feelings can trick us.

Back in September 1990, she tackled this weird problem in her column. It's called the Monty Hall thing now. Picture this: you're facing three doors. One has a car. Two have goats. You pick a door. The host shows you a goat behind another door. Then asks if you want to switch your choice.

Her answer? "Yes, you should switch." Simple as that. 💯

People lost their minds. Letters came flooding in—like 10,000 of them. About a thousand PhDs wrote to her. Most said she blew it.

"You completely messed up!" "You are that goat (fool)!" Some even went there: "Perhaps women view mathematical problems differently than men."

But she was right. 🚀

The logic isn't complicated. Pick a door with the car first (1/3 chance) and switch? You lose. Pick a door with a goat first (2/3 chance) and switch? You win. That's it.

Switching gives you 2/3 odds. Staying put? Just 1/3.

MIT ran computer simulations later. MythBusters tested it too. She nailed it.

The whole thing seems so counterintuitive because our brains aren't wired for this. We think it's 50/50 after the reveal. It's not. We mentally restart the problem. We shouldn't.

Vos Savant was always different. By age 10, she'd memorized entire books. Read all 24 volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica. 📚 Never finished college—had to help with family business. Found her groove in 1985 with "Ask Marilyn" in Parade Magazine.

The Monty Hall thing wasn't just about math. It was about standing firm when thousands told her she was wrong. Even really smart people. 🌕 She's still the highest IQ ever recorded, I think. Shows you something about sticking to your guns when you know you're right. Even geniuses get attacked sometimes.