When I learned programming the BASIC variant I used only supported two-character variable names. And even where longer names were allowed, the text of the program consumed memory so you could optimize by keeping variable names as short as possible. So I had the habit of using single-letter variables for quite a while. I still use them as loop counters, or in small functions where the scope of the variable is maybe a few lines of code and completely unambiguous. In such cases I think long variable names are distracting.