Ask HN: How/where to find hacker/programmers when your not one yourself?

I work in a nearly completely creative field and don't have much contact with hackers/programmers. I did my undergrad in business/film and got my MFA in film as well. As someone who is contemplating taking the startup plunge, I wanted to try and find like minded individuals who were a technical compliment to myself. Maybe as CTO/Co-Founders or maybe just smart people who would answer some of my rudimentary questions. I have a very clear idea of what I want to do based upon my domain expertise but don't know how to implement it and would like to chat with some knowledgeable programmers about where to even start.

I live/work in LA and would love someone to bounce ideas off of and just go from there. The question is: where to meet smart hackers? Certainly places like here and reddit are jumping off points. And then also good schools like CalTech/UCLA (in my area at least) etc. But are there meetups? Or places where programmers would be more receptive to fielding questions? And of course there's also the catch-22 of without being a programmer how do you spot a talented programmer?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.