I think I get frustrated here because "Clean Code" is talking about a very specific style of coding popularized by Robert Martin in the book with the same name.

I think I get frustrated here because "Clean Code" is talking about a very specific style of coding popularized by Robert Martin in the book with the same name. It is not a synonym for Good Code. Longer variable names are certainly a facet of Clean Code. It's in chapter 2, and Chapter 1 is an introduction. That said, I strongly suggest Arlo Belshee's series https://www.digdeeproots.com/articles/naming-as-a-process/ https://www.digdeeproots.com/articles/naming-as-a-process/ - this gets to the heart of how to have both descriptive and not-sentence-long.