I know people who are considered technical by shared non-technical friends - and I think they even are, to some extent. Still, some of those are still very inex

I know people who are considered technical by shared non-technical friends - and I think they even are, to some extent. Still, some of those are still very inexperienced and I certainly wouldn't trust them to be able to properly vet new developers yet on their own. I think to some extent, it's a matter of being lucky picking the right person to vet, since you can't vet that person yourself.