Editing Bootstrapping (section)

== Etymology ==
[[File:Dr Martens, black, old.jpg|thumb|right|A pair of boots with one bootstrap visible]]
Tall [[boot]]s may have a tab, loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap, allowing one to use fingers or a [[Boot jack|boot hook]] tool to help pull the boots on. The [[saying]] "to {{linktext|pull oneself up by one's bootstraps}}"<ref name="examples">{{cite mailing list |url=https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2005-August/052756.html |title=figurative 'bootstraps' |date=2005-08-11}}</ref> was already in use during the 19th century as an example of an impossible task. The [[idiom]] dates at least to 1834, when it appeared in the ''Workingman's Advocate'': "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots."<ref name=Freeman1>Jan Freeman, [http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/theword/2009/01/bootstraps_and.html Bootstraps and Baron Munchausen], ''[[Boston.com]]'', January 27, 2009</ref> In 1860 it appeared in a comment about [[philosophy of mind]]: "The attempt of the mind to analyze itself [is] an effort analogous to one who would lift himself by his own bootstraps."<ref>Jan Freeman, [http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/01/25/the_unkindliest_cut/ The unkindliest cut], ''[[Boston.com]]'', January 25, 2009</ref> Bootstrap as a metaphor, meaning to better oneself by one's own unaided efforts, was in use in 1922.<ref>''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'' cited in the Oxford English Dictionary</ref> This metaphor spawned additional metaphors for a series of self-sustaining processes that proceed without external help.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/290800.html|title='Pull yourself up by your bootstraps' - the meaning and origin of this phrase|first=Gary|last=Martin|website=Phrasefinder|access-date=23 June 2018}}</ref>

[[File:Zentralbibliothek Solothurn - Münchhausen zieht sich am Zopf aus dem Sumpf - a0400.tif|right|thumb|[[Baron Munchausen]] pulls himself and his horse out of a swamp by his pigtail.]]

The term is sometimes attributed to a story in [[Rudolf Erich Raspe]]'s ''[[wikisource:The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen|The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen]]'', but in that story [[Baron Munchausen]] pulls himself (and his horse) out of a swamp by his hair (specifically, his pigtail), not by his bootstraps{{snd}} and no explicit reference to bootstraps has been found elsewhere in the various versions of the Munchausen tales.<ref name="Freeman1" />

Originally meant to attempt something ludicrously far-fetched or even impossible, the phrase "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!" has since been utilized as a narrative for economic mobility or a cure for depression. That idea is believed to have been popularized by American writer [[Horatio Alger]] in the 19th century.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Mary Elizabeth |date=2023-04-01 |title="Pull yourself up by your bootstraps:" How a joke about bootstraps devolved into an American credo |url=https://www.salon.com/2023/04/01/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-how-a-joke-about-bootstraps-devolved-into-a-libertarian-credo/ |access-date=2023-11-09 |website=Salon |language=en}}</ref> To request that someone "bootstrap" is to suggest that they might overcome great difficulty by sheer force of will.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=The myth of meritocracy |url=https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/myth-meritocracy |access-date=2023-11-09 |website=BPS |language=en}}</ref>

Critics have observed that the phrase is used to portray unfair situations as far more meritocratic than they really are.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-08-09 |title=Why The Phrase 'Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps' Is Nonsense |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-nonsense_n_5b1ed024e4b0bbb7a0e037d4 |access-date=2023-11-09 |website=HuffPost UK |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Kristof |first=Nicholas |date=2020-02-20 |title=Opinion {{!}} Pull Yourself Up by Bootstraps? Go Ahead, Try It |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/19/opinion/economic-mobility.html |access-date=2023-11-09 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> A 2009 study found that 77% of Americans believe that wealth is often the result of hard work.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Alvarado |first=Lorriz Anne |date=2010 |title=Dispelling the Meritocracy Myth: Lessons for Higher Education and Student Affairs Educatorsand Student Affairs Educators |url=https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1087&context=tvc}}</ref> Various studies have found that the main predictor of future wealth is not IQ or hard work, but initial wealth.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Massey |first1=Douglas S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o-PYX6pox7wC |title=The Source of the River: The Social Origins of Freshmen at America's Selective Colleges and Universities |last2=Charles |first2=Camille Z. |last3=Lundy |first3=Garvey |last4=Fischer |first4=Mary J. |date=2011-06-27 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-4076-2 |language=en}}</ref>