I am still baffled by those enrage wipes at A8 where you die at 60%, but the second try you magically get enough dps. Miracle how fast can people improve.
It's not that baffling. It's omnipresent in real life in general; people eventually grow complacent until they start to fail, at which point they redouble their efforts. It's a constant seesawing of effort put in, such that people don't expend more effort on things that they need to.

People learn to do this sort of thing as young children, even -- for instance, seeing how far they can bend the rules without breaking them and getting into trouble.