I would be interested to hear more about how much they were discussing their failures/challenges with others. It sounds like this might be a case of, "I finally talked to someone about it and they unblocked me in an hour."

When I was in grad school I was very hesitant to ask others for help or feedback. Big mistake! I see similar things with interns: they'll wait until a daily or weekly check-in to raise problems.

My approach now is to set a time budget; if I don't figure it out myself within X hours, then I have to ask someone for help.