Real: Compliment. “Looks like the real thing” while working on the design means “this feels like it is already done or launch/production ready.” Real goes back to Latin res “property, goods, matter, thing, affair.” Paradoxically, in the tradition of maker’s knowledge, made things are more real than nature. Nature is always, to a degree, speculation and not a “fact” (from Lat. facere, to make), meaning a made thing. The metaphysics of Maker’s Knowledge nicely explains the delight in reaching reality by making things.