<P> In general, bootstrapping usually refers to a self - starting process that is supposed to proceed without external input . In computer technology the term (usually shortened to booting) usually refers to the process of loading the basic software into the memory of a computer after power - on or general reset, especially the operating system which will then take care of loading other software as needed . </P> <P> The term appears to have originated in the early 19 - century United States (particularly in the phrase "pull oneself over a fence by one's bootstraps") to mean an absurdly impossible action, an adynaton . </P> <P> Tall boots may have a tab, loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap, allowing one to use fingers or a boot hook tool to help pulling the boots on . The saying "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" was already in use during the 19 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 ." In 1860 it appeared in a comment on 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 ." Bootstrap as a metaphor, meaning to better oneself by one's own unaided efforts, was in use in 1922 . This metaphor spawned additional metaphors for a series of self - sustaining processes that proceed without external help . </P> <P> The term is sometimes attributed to a story in Rudolf Erich Raspe's 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--and no explicit reference to bootstraps has been found elsewhere in the various versions of the Munchausen tales . </P>

Where does the phrase pull yourself up by your bootstraps come from
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