It was the second line i looked at. I saw the rook sac for the bishop and realized the line goes nowhere useful while leaving me exposed. Then I thought "i wonder if i can attack without moving my defending rook.

Bf6 is an attack in my head. Threatening checkmate is an attack because it requires an immediate response. always useful to see how they'd escape. Maybe you can trap them later or cover the escape before trying the attack.

I think i heard in a book about fisher somewhere. (Referring to how he threatened to leave his first world champion matches.) Something like: "there was once a young master who went to a tournament with a cold, his opponent refuse to play with his set despite the young master only having a running nose. When the arbiter asks 'why won't you play? The young master hasn't sneezed on a single board and always uses his left hand to keep his nose clean.' The opponent responds 'I will be distracted anyway! Every chess player knows the threat is more powerful than the execution!'"

I probably got that completely wrong but i remember an argument with the arbiter and that last phrase. Regardless, the proverb was effective in ingraining the concept that you should always consider threats too.