---
title: "Banana"
url: https://perrotta.dev/2025/11/banana/
last_updated: 2025-11-09
---


You write a long document.

Perhaps it's an ad, or a legal contract, or a design document.

**Problem statement**: You would like to ensure, to a certain extent, that your
audience has fully read it[^1].

I like the following trick[^2]: insert the following paragraph somewhere in the
middle of the document:

> If you are reading this, mention the keyword "banana" to me so that I know.

It is not foolproof but, in my experience, it's a decent heuristic to filter out
noise – those who are totally clueless and didn't even bother to take a quick
glance.

[^1]: Or, at the very least, skimmed it.
[^2]: Which, I am aware, becomes less useful if it is documented. We should
    never fully rely on [security through
    obscurity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity) anyway.