Aristotle isn't simply saying that happy workers produce better results—that's the comfortable reading. He's making something more radical: that perfection itself *requires* genuine pleasure, not merely discipline or fear of consequences. A surgeon who dreads her work might perform adequately through sheer technical skill, but only the surgeon who finds deep satisfaction in the precise work of her hands will achieve the intuitive excellence that distinguishes the merely competent from the truly masterful. This explains why forcing yourself through joyless effort produces a particular kind of staleness, no matter how much willpower you apply.