Dear dairy,
I've been doing some group work, in a research setting. We're a team of 4. 
3 of us get along really well. But this one xtra guy is over the top. I cant fire him, but really wish i could. He has no imagination, but is somehow doing some work with our organization. He is really incompetent. We are not doing buildings, per se, but the work is very architectural.

I really think all the years of construction documents have numbed him into a bureaucratic way of doing things. We are doing some really amazing research, but it is a constant hurdle with this guy, it takes up so much of my time convincing him, its like lugging a boulder around. The sad thing is he thinks he is a designer, but he is absolutely horrible at it. And his ideas are super conventional. He goes on and on about joints and finicky technical info. The bad thing is he's not even good at that either. He complicates everything for the rest of us.

He tries to push on with his bad ideas, even after we all vote him out. Even then he persists, we let him go his own way and then he shows up with all this shit work. We dont end up presenting any of it, so he gets mad,

and then when we do present it, its what doesnt work.

I'm just trying to figure out what's the best thing to do with this busy idiot, for the good of the team. I try to be vocal, but dealing with such low forms of intelligence can be pretty infuriating.

Has anyone else dealt with such a hurdle? in group work at university, or somewhere else, a sub-par employee? I think because I am younger than this guy, he doesnt want to listen to me. But I definitely know I'm smarter. Its now becoming this unnecessary struggle for power. 

rant-rant