[abanana]

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.

[card_zero]

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.