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Yes, although doing something (anything) as opposed to having it done for you involves some degree of friction or difficulty (and therein lies the pleasure and value!)

No, it doesn’t. This is a pathology of a very contemporary type of technological anxiety. Doing things involves engagement with the physical world, but most of the time that is not difficulty, or shouldn’t be. William Morris called art “resistance in the materials,” but not all encounters are that.

I want the work to transform me. After a lifetime with word processors, it has.

The primary benefit of friction isn’t the satisfaction of overcoming it. It’s the space it can create in the system. Or, to put it another way, I’m a big fan of friction for other people. If we do away with the friction we need to do the work of making systems work without it.

This passage does seem to use "friction" as synonymous with "difficulty." To me, "friction" can also evoke the idea that you *feel something* while engaged in the activity instead of just sliding by it--the sense in which "friction" overlaps with "texture."