Don't Bunt

If you're going to try, go all the way.

I’m in finishing phases of my third book, out in March 2027.

Writing a book is a strange thing. You sit alone for thousands of hours, typing your thoughts. There is no feedback or fanfare. Only a lot of time to sit in your own head.

And our heads? Well …

We all have an imaginary jury up there. We ask: What will people think of this? Should I say or do exactly what I think—or should hedge and keep things safe?

This isn’t just a writing thing. It applies to everything we want to accomplish—from big projects to physical challenges to personal choices to how we live day-to-day life.

I’m doing my best to resist that in this next book.

Strangely enough, an advertising man from the 1950s has helped me strengthen the resistance.

David Ogilvy is considered “The Father of Advertising.” He founded Ogilvy & Mather in 1948. His ideas were big and bold—and they’re still considered some of the greatest and most creative campaigns of all time.

When people asked him for advice, he had a simple response: Don’t bunt.

For those averse to watching video, here’s the quote:

Advice? I can talk for hours on this subject. The first thing I say is, ‘be more ambitious. Don’t bunt. When you get a job to do a storyboard or an ad, try to hit the ball out of the park every time. Don’t bunt. Compete with immortals.

You live once. In the grand sweep of time, no one will remember you. All we have is now, so we might as well do it our way. Don’t bunt.

From here you’ll learn:

• The four psychological errors that lead us to play it safe, but ultimately hold us back.

• Why our brains treat social rejection like a threat to your survival.

• How to stop hedging, quiet the internal “jury,” and take big swings in your life and health.

Quick Housekeeping

• Wednesday’s post covered a common workout mistake that can raise injury risk by 30%, and a framework for building better workouts.

• Friday’s Expedition post covered 21 new ideas that improved my life this month.

• Last week’s podcasts:

  • Maria Konnikova, a PhD psychologist turned pro poker player, explained why we’re bad at making decisions, and how to make better ones. Listen here.

  • Thursday, Dr. John Kedrowski talked about his “Everest Ready Mindset,” training for the outdoors, and what climbing Everest seven times taught him about taking risks and living well today. Listen here.

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Why we bunt

Bunting feels safe and smart.

Years of psychological research show we have a cocktail of psychological errors that prevent us from swinging big—taking the safer and more comfortable path. These tendencies are human. But they often hold us back today.

• The spotlight effect. Researchers at Cornell coined this term in 2000. It tells us we all think the spotlight is on us, and that everyone is watching us and judging us. Surprise: They aren’t. In one study¹, the scientists sent people into a room wearing an embarrassing T-shirt, then asked them how many people in the room noticed their dumb t-shirt. The wearers guessed about double the real number.

• Conformity to the norm. We do what we think won’t ruffle feathers, even when it’s not what we really want to do—or clearly wrong. Consider Solomon Asch’s famous experiments². People sat in a room where everyone else audibly gave an obviously wrong answer to a question. About a third of participants went with the group and agreed to the wrong answer. The good news: When a single person questioned the group’s answer, conformity nearly vanished.

• Loss aversion. Maria Konnikova—PhD psychologist and pro poker player—talked about this on the Two Percent pod. It comes from Kahneman and Tversky³ and shows we’re wired to protect what we’ve got rather than reach for more. Bunting feels like it will prevent losses. The big swing feels like a risk—even when we should take it.

• Avoiding rejection. Humans are wired to avoid social rejection because—for nearly all of human history—getting cast out of the tribe could kill you. We developed a deep need to belong and a brain that treats criticism like a survival threat⁴. That’s the jury inside our head—overthinking what people will think.

To sum it all up: The jury in our head is small and inconsequential. When we don’t conform, we often find new followers. And today, a loss isn’t death and we’ll still have people who care.

This philosophy is not unique to Ogilvy

Maybe the ideas of a guy who created legendary ad campaigns for Rolls Royce, Dove, and Hathaway shirts don’t speak to you.

Taking big risks is a theme running through some of the most creative minds, and groups that have changed millions of lives.

If you don’t like the Ogilvy quote, consider one of these instead:

If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is. -Charles Bukowski, What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire

Half measures availed us nothing. -Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

When you do something … you should do it completely, like a good bonfire. You should not be a smoky fire. You should burn yourself completely. If you do not burn yourself completely, a trace of yourself will be left in what you do. -Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

Spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. -Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth. -Katherine Mansfield, personal journals, 1922

That’s it. That’s the full letter. A reminder that whoever you are, whatever you’re doing, no matter what it is, don’t bunt.

Have fun, don’t die, compete with immortals,

Michael

1. Gilovich, T., Medvec, V. H., & Savitsky, K. (2000). The spotlight effect in social judgment: An egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one's own actions and appearance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(2), 211–222.

2. Franzen A, Mader S. The power of social influence: A replication and extension of the Asch experiment. PLoS One. 2023 Nov 29;18(11):e0294325. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294325. PMID: 38019779; PMCID: PMC10686423.

3. The Quarterly Journal of Economics; Vol. 106, No. 4 (Nov., 1991), pp. 1039-1061 (23 pages)

4. Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., & Williams, K. D. (2003). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302(5643), 290–292.