At one (large) company I worked at we hired the guy that basically invented one of the technologies at Sun behind one of the larger JSRs - like an entire standa

At one (large) company I worked at we hired the guy that basically invented one of the technologies at Sun behind one of the larger JSRs - like an entire standard API for one of the Java EE products (not going to say which) for an architect role. I have no idea why we hired him. He basically sat idle all the time asking what he was supposed to do. He randomly would make charts and show people. He was older, out of touch with most of the team, and just kinda present at every meeting with no specific task or role. He had advice here and there that most of the people at the table were already thinking through. I left before I found out what happened to him. Nice guy though. Hiring might be broken for keeping out the best of the best, but as long as you work at a company that isn't afraid of firing/laying off, hiring isn't fully broken.