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.