Ceramics are considered humanity's first synthetic material.
We transform raw clay and minerals with heat into a stable solid that doesn't appear in nature.
And we've been doing so for over 20,000 years.
Sitting at the pottery wheel, I feel connected to those thousands of years of design history.
And I feel the same way using agentic coding tools. Ceramics and vibe coding have more in common than you might think.
Both work raw materials into something usable.
Sitting at the wheel, you guide and respond to the clay the same way you guide and respond to the LLMs in your IDE.
Both use tools that amplify your abilities.
The wheel and Claude Code both mean that you can make more, faster, and better.
And both increase the potential of the maker.
Ceramics enabled us to store, cook, transport, and process food and liquids in new ways. This led to some major outcomes like improved diets, larger communities, and more trade.
Vibe coding enables us to explore, build, test, learn, and deliver products in new ways. This will lead to major outcomes too.
I'm grateful to be living through this latest chapter of design history, connected to the same ancient impulse: make something useful, make it well, and make it for someone else to use.