Episode 166: “Sometimes You Should Be Late”: Alex Snider on His New Book and Slowing Down in Government

This week on The GovNavigators Show, Robert and Adam welcome Alex Snider, a former GSA and State Department official and author of the new book Sometimes You Should Be Late, to talk about what mindfulness has to do with government management. Alex walks through his career path in the Executive branch, and explains how recovering from a bike accident and the concussion that followed sent him toward meditation, therapy, and a new relationship with time. The conversation digs into the way breath is important to helping us live in the present, how bringing mindfulness into stakeholder meetings and performance reviews changes how public servants relate to one another, and why "sometimes you should be late" isn't an excuse for flakiness but a case for slowing down enough to notice the things that matter. Plus, Alex lets us in on the realities of a first-time author’s book launch, and how it further reinforced his idea that we should let go of the things we can’t control.  

Show Notes: 

• WSJ: Housing Bill Becomes Law Despite Trump Refusing to Sign It 

• Federal News Network: Federal CIO Barbaccia leaving in August 

• Federal News Network: DoT CIO Pidugu leaving 

• Federal News Network: Interior Department CIO is out after holding job for over a year 

• Government Executive: HUD's tech chief appears headed for Interior 

• The Hill: DOGE officially shuts down 

• Politico: Washington’s quantum reality check (White House quantum summit) 

• IBM Newsroom: Oak Ridge National Lab, Cleveland Clinic, and IBM Achieve First-Known Computations of Fusion Materials on a Quantum Computer 

• Alex Snider: Sometimes You Should Be Late (Book) 

• Alex Snider: Slow Mindfulness (Substack) 

• Alex Snider: slowmindfulness.com 

What's on the GovNavigators' Radar? 

July 14th: 

• Federal Student Loan Management Roundtable, Center for USA Lending, Washington, DC 

• Grants Management SIN Webinar, GSA 

July 15th: 

• Emerging Fraud Threats and the Evolving Fraud Landscape Hearing, Subcommittee on Government Operations, U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

• Exposing Fraud in America Hearing, Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee 

July 16th: 

• GovExec Government Efficiency Summit, JW Marriott, Washington, DC