Programmers shouldn't be wasting brain power deciphering cryptic variable names. Save that energy for where it counts (solving actual problems!)
"I notice a lot of Python programmers tend to use less descriptive variable names."
I will go so far as to say all of the truly buggy software I have ever seen had the most explicit variables. To the point that it is just a sideshow. Use them if they don't get in the way. Don't if they do.
In the project I work on, I found a wonderful rats nest of variable names in a function that led to an excellent bug where "N" and "n" were swapped, leading to a completely different result.
Poorly named functions/modules/variables/classes, etc are indicative of poorly thought out code.... as the other subject of this post (c vs python) also confirms.
You will see similar naming idiosyncrasies if someone writes Java in Python, or lisp in python (or Python in C, or Java in Lisp, etc.).
no excuse for names like that regardless of language.
"A variable or function name should be sufficient to understand the meaning, while remaining concise. The shorter the lifespan or scope of a variable, the shorter its name should be; conversely, the more important a variable, and the more places it is used, the more descriptive that name should be."
These names certainly conform to this standard.