Well, it's been said. He seemed cool with it. A bit disappointed but trusted me when I said it would take over a year to really be proficient enough in coding for this to work and that it wasn't fair to either of us for all that.

I still feel terrible about it. It's a lesson learned I guess.

I don't think it'll hurt our friendship or anything. I hope he doesn't take it personally, as if I don't trust him or think he's smart enough or something. Because ultimately it's just out of his control... I assumed, incorrectly, he could learn the necessary skills far sooner than is reasonable for anyone (no matter how intelligent) could learn them.

Anyway, I appreciate the advice. All of the advice and some further reading I did really helped me make this decision. Hopefully it was the right one and all works out well.