I see it as a 3 tiered hierarchy of satisfaction: * 1 - If you manage to do something interesting/beautiful after struggling, doubting yourself and working thr

I see it as a 3 tiered hierarchy of satisfaction: * 1 - If you manage to do something interesting/beautiful after struggling, doubting yourself and working through it, you come out with a tremendous sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, even though the day to day might have been miserable (in that sense the mountaineering comparison from the article is apt). * 2 - If you get something interesting/beautiful after little (I don't mean no, I mean little) effort, you still enjoy it somewhat. * 3 - If you struggle through something for a while, and come out at the end with nothing to show for it that you like or are proud of, it feels pretty terrible. So it seems in your case you used do do (3), and now can do (2), which must definitely feel nicer. But for people that can do (1), such as proficient artists, having to move to (2) feels like it's completely destroying the entire reason why they like to do this in the first place.