In [1]: a = ([], 2, 3, 4)

In [2]: a
Out[2]: ([], 2, 3, 4)

In [3]: a[0] += ["How did I get here?"]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TypeError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)

<ipython console> in <module>()

TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment

In [4]: a
Out[4]: (['How did I get here?'], 2, 3, 4)