The art of the sacrificial 'duck' in programming projects
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Project managers, ducks, and dogs marking territory
https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2013/06/05/duck/
https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2013/06/05/duck/
The only real objection I have to this as a term is that it's too easy to confuse with "rubber ducking": https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging
My dad tells a similar story of an offshore oilrig person giving a tour to some C-Suite type people. His alarm goes off, and he pauses the tour to throw an oily rag on the floor. 5 minutes later the rig supervisor person steps out of their office, looks around, shouts about oily rags and health&safety risks, then goes back into their office.
With a similar "punchline" about giving the supervisor something obvious to complain about
So, perhaps call it an "oily rag"?
I remember seeing a comic once about two devs, one complaining that this senior always puts lots of nitpicky comments on her code review, and the other replies that he always makes one obvious mistake, so the senior can point it out and feel like they've done their job
Do your thing internet, cos I cannot find it
This works a lot of the time with the people that don't really care about the review. With those that do it won't