Does Rich Burlew read TvTropes?

[Petrocorus]

Devising a plan where you benefit even if the plan fails? I'm fairly certain that's older than media. The very first people with any intelligence must have been doing that even before the first caveman started painting on cave walls. Such plans were probably in existence before the invention of language.

I do know this, as i mentioned.
My question is: does the practice to call this kind of plan in fiction "Xanatos Gambit" comes from TvTropes or had already been used before.
Between the first season of Gargoyles in 94 and the beginning of TvTrope in 2003, how was this kind of plan called?