DabbinOnDemGoy t1_jare01d wrote on March 3, 2023 at 2:49 PM

Reply to comment by Eliseo120 in TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from 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. by meat-juice

That's the point; people do use "pick yourself up by your bootstraps" as a different way of meaning 'work harder'. I'd argue most people don't understand what the phrase actually means, and have heard/used it wrong.