This is a topic that can make some people’s eyes glaze over and their minds wander off into the land of nodding.

First: what exactly is slicing in Python? Well, it’s a way to extract a portion (or “slice”) of a list or string. It looks like this: `my_list[start:stop]` or `my_string[start:stop]`. The start and stop indices are optional, but if you leave them out, Python will assume that they’re 0 and the length of the object being sliced (respectively).

Let’s take a look at some examples. Say we have this list: `my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]`. If we want to get the first three elements, we can do this: `first_three = my_list[:3]` or if you prefer, `first_three = my_list[0:3]`.

Now let’s say we have a string: `my_string = “hello world”`. If we want to get the first five characters (excluding the space), we can do this: `starting_five = my_string[:5]` or if you prefer, `starting_five = my_string[0:5]`.

But what if we only want the last three elements of our list? We can use negative indices! That’s right, If we do this: `last_three = my_list[-3:]`, Python will return us a new list containing the last three elements (`[3, 4, 5]`).

And what if we want to get everything except for the first two and last two characters of our string? We can do this: `middle_string = my_string[2:-2]`. This will give us a new string containing all but the first two and last two characters (`”llo wrld”`).

If we want to get every other element of our list starting from index 1, we can do this: `every_other = my_list[1::2]`. This will give us a new list containing only the second, fourth, sixth, etc. elements (`[2, 4, 6]`).

And if you want to get every other element starting from index -3 and going backwards, we can do this: `every_other_backwards = my_list[-3::-2]`. This will give us a new list containing only the fourth, second, etc. elements (`[5, 3]`).

Slicing in Python is not as scary as some people make it out to be. Just remember: start and stop indices are optional, negative indices work too, and step size can also be specified.