Why is it that logical operators don't work with user input?

Question

For example:

>>> a = input()
False
>>> q = not a
>>> print(q)
False
>>> print(not False)
True

Answer 1

not sure, but I think a string when checked for true/false is equal to true if it contains characters

Answer 2

Because the user input is a string type and not a logical type.

Reread the beginning of the Python course about setting variable values and then use conditional statements like if to set variables of a logical type to match the user input value.