Slightly orthogonal to the original point, but worth noting that operators can also increase confusion when they don't interact with each other in expected ways. For example, in Python, 'x += y' isn't equivalent to 'x = x + y' in all contexts. Example:

  >>> a_tuple = ([1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6])
  >>> a_tuple[2] += ['foo', 'bar']
  TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment
  >>> a_tuple
  ([1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6, 'foo', 'bar'])

vs

  >>> a_tuple = ([1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6])
  >>> a_tuple[2] = a_tuple[2] + ['foo', 'bar']
  TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment
  >>> a_tuple
  ([1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6])

Edited to add, to understand what's happening here, check out the documentation on in place operators: https://docs.python.org/3/library/operator.html#in-place-ope...