Yes exactly, that jumps out as a strange thing to say. The enjoyable part of programming is the puzzle, the act of figuring out how to solve the problem elegantly and well.
Although I can't speak for artists, surely the joy of painting is in the creation of a piece of art they can be proud of?
Enjoyment in work is generally about taking pride in the end result, not in the repetitive mechanical part.
Not exactly, no. What is "the problem" - is there really only one problem? - and where does the creativity go? This depends on what you're doing and how you're going about it. Maybe every little mark you make on paper or canvas or a text file is a puzzle, with associated meta-level questions, and the interest is in hundreds of intimately small creative notions, and when it all approaches the end you have mixed feelings because the (very much non-mechanical) process has stopped.
Although I can't speak for artists, surely the joy of painting is in the creation of a piece of art they can be proud of?
Enjoyment in work is generally about taking pride in the end result, not in the repetitive mechanical part.