My lens for reading — especially when it comes to “self-improvement” or recommended reading — is colored by efficiency, ROI, and long-term growth. Books are investments: in knowledge, perspective, and personal capital. So when someone curates a list of books she finds valuable, I treat that list as a curated portfolio of ideas.

In that spirit, I recently looked at some of the books Becca Bloom has recommended, and thought: “What’s the expected return on investing time in these reads?”

What Becca Bloom Recommends — and What That Suggests

On one of her shared lists of “books that we all should read,” Becca Bloom names The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli and Spy the Lie as foundational.

• The Art of Thinking Clearly — This book aims to reveal common cognitive biases and decision-making errors. For someone trained in business analytics and strategic thinking, it offers a valuable meta-framework: sharpen your mind by understanding when — and how — your brain deceives you. It’s a tool for better judgment, clearer analysis, and perhaps even improved leadership or management decisions.
• Spy the Lie — While not a traditional self-help or business book, it emphasizes detecting deceit, reading behavioral cues, and being perceptive about truth and intention. From a business perspective — negotiations, hiring, stakeholder relationships — those soft skills can give you an edge.

These choices reflect more than just “feel-good” self-help: they’re pragmatic. They speak to decision-making, behavioral insight, and cognitive clarity — things an MBA-trained mind values deeply.

Why These Picks Resonate to a Business-Oriented Mind

1. Cognitive hygiene = better judgments

Just as good financial controls prevent waste in business, being aware of cognitive biases protects individual decisions from irrationality. The Art of Thinking Clearly becomes a mental risk-management guide.

2. Behavioral awareness as strategic advantage

In business settings, talent acquisition, partnerships, negotiations — understanding human behavior can be as critical as understanding spreadsheets. Spy the Lie offers soft-skill insights that often get undervalued in traditional MBA training.

3. Self-improvement with discipline, not fluff

Unlike many feel-good self-help books that emphasize vague “positivity,” these recommendations demand self-reflection, critical thinking, and rigorous self-audit. That aligns with a results-driven mindset: not just growth, but effective growth.

4. Treating personal growth as a portfolio

Just like a diversified investment portfolio, a diversified reading list — combining behavioral psychology, decision science, introspection — builds a more resilient and flexible personal strategy.

A Critical MBA-Mindset — What to Watch Out For

Of course, no book is a silver bullet. As someone accustomed to due diligence, I see reasons to apply caution:

• Not every insight scales: What works for one person may not for another — biases, psychological makeup, context vary.
• Risk of overthinking: Too much self-analysis or behavioral parsing can lead to paralysis rather than action. Sometimes momentum and execution matter more than introspection.
• Signal vs. noise: Some ideas may be more fluff than substance. It’s on the reader (you) to treat each read like a mini-experiment: try out the idea, observe results, then discard or integrate.

Just like evaluating a business strategy, reading should be evaluated: What benefit did I get? Did it change my decision-making? Did it improve my relationships, my productivity?

How I’d Use Becca’s Picks in a “Growth Project” Framework

If I were building a personal-development roadmap — MBA style — using Becca Bloom’s recommendations:

• Phase 1 – Diagnostic: Read The Art of Thinking Clearly. Maintain a “bias journal” — track decisions, reflect on unwanted outcomes, ask “Did I fall for any bias?”
• Phase 2 – Soft-Skill Audit: Read Spy the Lie. Observe communications and interactions in personal and professional settings; reflect on trust, transparency, and insight outcomes.
• Phase 3 – Integration & Experimentation: Adopt insights from both books into real-world decisions — hiring, negotiation, relationship building — evaluate results.
• Phase 4 – Review & Adjust: Quarterly (or half-year) review — what improved, what backfired; calibrate accordingly.

Treat personal growth the same way you treat a business initiative — with strategy, metrics, reflection, and iteration.

Final Thoughts: The Value of Curated Reading — With a Business Brain

Reading lists curated by people like Becca Bloom can feel like “pre-packaged growth plans.” As someone with an MBA, I don’t view that as a weakness — I view it as a head start. They can save time, reduce the noise of “which book should I pick?”, and act as gateways to skills and insights that traditional business training often overlooks (emotional intelligence, bias awareness, behavioral acumen).

But the real value lies not in reading, but in application. Pick intentionally. Read with purpose. Test what you learn. Iterate. And treat personal growth as the long-term investment it is.

Michael Mettler is a fractional CMO based in Washington State.