You'll sometimes see Python people use not the word "smart", but the word "clever", with bad connotations. "Clever" programming, in this context, means valuing line/character count or showing off unusual algorithms or language tricks only the "clever" programmer knows, at the expense of clarity and maintainability.

So, for example, the mundane way to square a number in Python would be:

    def square(n):
        return n**2

The "clever" way would be:

    from itertools import count, ifilter, islice
    s = lambda n: sum(islice(ifilter(lambda n: n % 2, count()), n))

The first one was clear, readable, easy to understand and maintain. The second one is tricky to read, requires some thought to work out what it's doing, and is written to show off knowledge of a slightly-obscure algorithm and the way to implement it in Python.