A magic bullet for hiring quality devs

Of course there had to be another one of these posts...

Everyone recite the industry mantra: the only good developers are in the Old Boys' Network. It shouldn't matter what they know, it matters who they know. Recite it before supper and you will be blessed with successful projects. Refuse to follow it and try to evaluate your candidates objectively and you will burn in the cauldron of spaghetti code.

This is basically a popularity contest. Nothing to do with technical skills, just social skills. Good if you're wanting a sales person. Not so good if you're wanting someone who choose to sit in front of a computer all day doing a job which doesn't require that much social interaction.

I like the concept because it is only a means to a conversation. The only issue I can see is people abusing the friends aspect. Is there a way to qualify their friends to make sure they know what they are talking about and can be trusted?

Interesting new failure mode. I don't even want to start thinking about how this model can be manipulated. And even if it's not being manipulated, whose definition of the “right” people will prevail?

Tried to create a profile out of curiosity and it 404s. http://hiremyfriend.io/profiles