Does Python use linked lists for lists? Why is inserting slow?
<p>Just learning Python.  Reading through the official tutorials.  I ran across this:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>While appends and pops from the end of list are fast, doing inserts or pops from the beginning of a list is slow (because all of the other elements have to be shifted by one).</p>
</blockquote>

<p>I would have guessed that a mature language like Python would have all sorts of optimizations, so why doesn't Python [seem to] use linked lists so that inserts can be fast?</p>
