Comment by nwallin

I violently agree with you.

The most important thing you can do during a job interview is to as best you can figure out who the talented people are and how long they've been at the company. If the most talented people are the people who have been there the longest, it's a good sign. If the people who have been there the longest don't seem to do any technical work and seem like powerpoint monkeys, it's a dire warning sign that the company is deeply dysfunctional.

In any case, the "Dead Sea Effect" is not a general truth, it's only true in dysfunctional organizations. The author of the linked post seems to be a consultant who helps failing IT organizations turn the ship around. I think his experience has led him to self-select into the dysfunctional ones.