How was he talented? All the stories are the same. "Talented" etc. But then it leads to he never did any work. How can you assess his talent?
> worked for us for almost a year and did a solid job
All I hear is "really good at interviewing."
The people assessing his talent are falling for the same delusion as the people conducting the interview.
mid-level output, clearly had more capability than his output suggested from his ideas and some particularly strong contributions
Perhaps he's talented at interviewing? Turns out this is the only skill you really need...