Filed in “things you can’t unsee once you’ve seen them”:
In tech, the manager of a team has the lion’s share of influence on hiring decisions, and managers are rewarded when their team’s output improves. This incentivizes hiring for talent.
In academia, existing tenure-track faculty have the lion’s share of influence over hiring decisions and, the more talented the hire is, the more likely they are to outshine the incumbents. This incentivizes hiring for mediocrity.