Why ‘the wash’?

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NAMING A BLOG is hard. Like any signature, the purpose is to differentiate and there’s a lot of everything else. Then there’s the potential for ambiguity: good or bad? In the Wash could mean ‘in with other things‘ (ok), ‘not ready’ (often true), or ‘all wet’ (certainly possible). Take your pick.

I like to think of it as the short form of ‘it will all come out in the wash’, the figure of speech suggesting ‘the truth will come out over time’. But even that is post-rationalization. The inspiration came while listening to Dr Fei Fei Li when she said, ‘A.I. today is closer to a wash machine than Terminator’.

Andrew Cochran
16 February 2019

Andrew Cochran is a producer and writer who’s worked in media for 40+ years. He began as a local news reporter and was head of news strategy for a national public broadcaster.

updated 6 February 2023

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