Bootstrap… A Long and Historic Journey
How The Practical Overcame The Impossible… Using Only Available Resources, Of Course
I am a Bootstrapper. Or at least I think I am. When I first started researching this article, it occurred to me that Bootstrap is now more synonymous with a web development framework than any application of the word of which I was familiar. I had bootstrapped in life, in business, and in statistics. Yet all of these fine applications are lost in the Google listings of history.
The original Bootstrap is only a hair farther away from obscurity than the Aglet. Bootstraps have the benefit of being a compound word and the inspiration for a ton of related processes from computers and engineering to biology and statistics. The Aglet is meerly the inspiration for an episode of Phineas and Ferb, which does include a catchy song.
The Original
The original bootstrap was a bit of extra leather at the top of a boot, often sewn into a loop, though not always or even originally. They became common in the boots of the 1800s. Prior to the 1800s, boots were often made of various pieces — in a shoe with leggings sort of style. In the arc of what’s old is new, Boot Illusions is bringing back the multi-piece. Even once the one-piece became vogue, it was often laced.
At the beginning of the 1800s, Hessian boots were all the rage. First in London, then in America, these boots became quite popular with the fashion-minded. Unlike prior popular boots, these were of solid construction and lacked lacing. While coveted for their protection and durability, this left them a little harder to get on. A simple innovation, the bootstrap, changed all that.
Soon the bootstrap was everywhere. Officer’s boots, calvary boots, engineers boots, cowboy boots, and the simple work boot. Bootstraps made them practical and commonplace. A simple thought to use the leather that would otherwise have been cut away.
The Impossible
Once the bootstrap was a common, it began to make its way into popular idiom. Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps became synonymous with doing the impossible.
Magazines, textbooks, and a myriad of other references would make the bootstrap part of popular reference. They were a practical analogy for the budding study of science and engineering. Unfortunately, the shoe and shoelace were in hot pursuit.
Somewhere in the early 1900’s the bootstrap reinvigorated its more practical roots. Pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps went from the impossible to aspirational. Whether this was an influence of the industrial revolution or the affluence of turn of the century America, the meaning changed. To bootstrap now meant to use limited means to seek self-improvement. Bootstrappers were those who achieved success through perseverance, determination, and limited available resources.
A Common Theme
Making the most of what is available is a great principle. While the original strap itself was fading into obscurity, the phrase Bootstrap was branching out to new uses. Statistician would begin to bootstrap control groups. Companies would bootstrap new products. Engineers, electricians, biologists, and web developers would all eventually follow suit.
To bootstrap is to do the best with what is available. It embodies hard work, perseverance, and shoestring budgets (yes, it caught up). A term that began as a novel idea for some leftover leather morphed into a dogma that drives many of today’s start-ups and small businesses. It did so by focusing on the principles that defined it, agnostic to its current format or function. In the end, it is a fitting inspiration to those who still boldly wear its name.
Take that Venture Capitalists! Take that Aglet! Bootstrapping — its a life style.
