This seems like a symptom of learning to code for the sake of being able to code, versus learning to code because you enjoy coding. It's just as much work in an absolute sense, but the process in the latter case seems more effortless and fun.

There's a similar thing in the music world. Some people want to be good at guitar, others like playing guitar. The former get bogged down in despair, the latter fiddle around on their instruments every night without even thinking. Guess which ones end up getting good?

[edit] cholmon makes a good point; the enjoyment is more in creating things than in simply writing code.