maunderings of a meandering mind

I look at it from the other direction. The question I ask myself is "Do I know Zoe well enough that I would give her an honest answer about what it's like to work with Yves?". I don't really worry about what I tell Yves about Zoe - I don't find that I'm using up much of my recommending capital if I say "A friend of a friend was interested in your company so I said I'd pass the resume along though I've never directly worked with her".