Programming isn't as fun as building and creating.

It's the balance between engineering and design. Apple naturally knows how to find that center, most others seem to skew too far in either direction.

I had similar feelings a couple of years ago. I was a .net programmer for 10 years and seriously considered going to dental school.

Instead I bought a MacBook last thanksgiving and built an iPhone app that Apple featured and subsequently sold very well. The Mac world was a completely new area as well as mobile (was doing enterprise software). It has made programming fun because I also run a small business with it. In addition, running a small business I'm using open source software to build my new website and learning python on django has been a pleasure.

At least for me programming is fun again, but also because it's helping towards my goal starting a company.

If you don't mind my asking, what was the app?

I've noticed a surge in contacts from recruiters, almost daily now from linkedin asking if I'm looking. Last year was a very different story.