You know that feeling when you have an idea—just a tiny, fragile spark—and you’re terrified to say it out loud? It sits there in the back of your mind, maybe in a dusty notebook or a forgotten Notes app entry, waiting for the “right time.” But usually, the right time doesn’t come. Usually, the idea just fades away.
That’s where the concept of a Labarty comes in.
It sounds a bit like a mix of “laboratory” and “party,” doesn’t it? And honestly, that’s exactly what it feels like. It’s not a stiff corporate boardroom where innovation goes to die under the weight of PowerPoint presentations. It’s messy. It’s loud. It’s where you break things to see how they work.
If we look at how the best things in the world were created, rarely was it a straight line from A to B. It was a squiggly, chaotic mess. Labarty is the celebration of that mess. It’s a modern framework for testing ideas without the paralyzing fear of failure.
Let’s dig into what this actually looks like in practice and why we desperately need spaces like this today.
Why We Stopped Experimenting (And Why It’s Dangerous)
Somewhere along the line, we got obsessed with perfection.
Think about school. You get graded on getting the answer right. You don’t get extra credit for a really interesting wrong answer. This conditioning follows us into adulthood. We stop raising our hands unless we are 100% sure. We stop building prototypes unless we know they’ll sell.
But here’s the kicker: Perfection is the enemy of innovation.
If you look at the history of big tech or art, it’s littered with “failures” that were actually just stepping stones. A Labarty environment flips the script. It says, “Hey, bring your half-baked, weird, possibly terrible ideas to the table. Let’s poke them with a stick and see if they move.”
When we stop experimenting, we stagnate. Businesses that refuse to play around with new concepts—think Blockbuster or Kodak—eventually get eaten alive by the ones that do.
The Anatomy of a Labarty
So, what makes a space a “Labarty”? Is it bean bag chairs and a ping pong table? God, I hope not. We’ve seen enough of those “cool office” tropes to know they don’t actually spark creativity.
A true Labarty is a mindset, not just a physical location.
1. Psychological Safety is King
This is the boring-sounding term for a very exciting concept. It means nobody laughs at you when you screw up. In a Labarty, if you propose an idea that totally bombs, the reaction isn’t derision; it’s curiosity. “Okay, that didn’t work. Why? Was the timing off? Was the tech not there yet?”
If people are scared of looking stupid, they will never, ever give you their best work. They’ll give you the safe work.
2. Rapid Prototyping (The “Cardboard Phase”)
I once visited a design studio where they were building a new type of coffee maker. Before they touched a 3D printer or wrote a line of code, they built the thing out of cardboard, duct tape, and a literal toilet paper roll.
That is the essence of Labarty.
You need to get ideas out of your head and into the real world as fast as possible. It doesn’t need to be pretty. In fact, if it’s too pretty, you’re doing it wrong. You get attached to pretty things. You don’t want to change them. You have no problem ripping up a cardboard model and starting over.
3. Collision of Disciplines
You can’t have a party with just one type of person. It gets boring. The same goes for testing ideas.
The magic happens when you put a coder, a poet, and an accountant in a room and tell them to solve a problem. They see the world through completely different lenses. The coder looks for efficiency. The poet looks for emotion. The accountant looks for viability.
When these perspectives crash into each other, you get sparks. That friction is the innovation.
How to Host Your Own “Labarty” Session
You don’t need a fancy Google campus to do this. You can do it in your living room or a rented WeWork conference room.
Start with a “Bad Idea Brainstorm.”
This is one of my favorite exercises. Tell everyone in the room that for the next 20 minutes, they are only allowed to come up with bad ideas. The worst possible solutions to the problem.
Why? Because it takes the pressure off.
If I ask you for a “good” idea, you freeze up. You filter yourself. If I ask for a bad idea, you laugh and shout something out. “Let’s make a phone that only works underwater!” “Let’s sell ice to penguins!”
But here is the trick: usually, hidden inside those “bad” ideas are the seeds of genius. Maybe the underwater phone leads to a discussion about waterproof tech for divers. Maybe the ice for penguins leads to a campaign about climate change.
You are loosening the jar lid.
If you are looking for tools to help facilitate these kinds of messy, creative sessions, you might want to check out some digital whiteboard platforms that let remote teams scribble and stick notes together in real-time. It’s not quite the same as being in the room, but it’s close.
The Role of Failure in the Lab
We need to rebrand failure.
In a Labarty, failure isn’t the end of the road; it’s just data. It’s information.
Think of a scientist in a lab (the “Lab” part of our name). If they mix two chemicals and nothing happens, they don’t go home and cry. They write down “Chemical A + Chemical B = Nothing.” Now they know. That is progress.
When you treat your creative projects like experiments, the emotional weight lifts. You aren’t your idea. If the idea fails, you aren’t a failure. You just found a way that doesn’t work.
This is why creative resilience is so high in these environments. You bounce back faster because you were never that weighed down to begin with.
Real-World Examples of the Labarty Mindset
Look at the story of Pixar.
Their “Braintrust” meetings are legendary. When a director is working on a movie, they bring it to a group of other directors and storytellers. And they tear it apart. But—and this is crucial—they do it with love. They are candid because they want the movie to be great.
They understand that early versions of movies (they call them “ugly babies”) are fragile and need protection, but they also need honest feedback to grow up. That room is a Labarty. It’s a space where the goal is truth and quality, not ego.
Another example is Dyson. James Dyson went through 5,126 failed prototypes before he got his vacuum cleaner right. 5,126! Most of us quit after the second try. He had created a personal Labarty where perseverance was the only metric that mattered.
Is This Just for Creatives?
Absolutely not.
This applies to everyone. A family trying to figure out their vacation plans can use a Labarty approach. “Okay, no bad ideas. Go.” Suddenly you’re looking at trips you never considered.
A small business owner trying to fix a supply chain issue.
A teacher trying to engage a bored classroom.
The principles are universal:
- Lower the stakes.
- Invite chaos.
- Test fast.
- Learn from the crash.
If you’re interested in reading more about how environment shapes our thinking, there are some great resources on environmental psychology that explain why changing your physical space can literally change your brain waves.
Conclusion: The Invitation
The world is changing fast. The old ways of rigid planning and “failure is not an option” thinking are becoming obsolete. They are too slow.
We need more Labarties. We need more spaces where we can be wrong, where we can be messy, and where we can play with ideas until they turn into something real.
So, the next time you have a weird hunch or a half-formed thought, don’t shove it down. Throw a Labarty for it. Invite a few friends, get some cardboard, maybe a few drinks, and see where the chaos takes you.
FAQs
What exactly is a “Labarty”?
It’s a conceptual blend of a laboratory and a party—a space dedicated to experimenting with ideas in a fun, low-pressure, and collaborative environment.
Do I need a team to have a Labarty?
Not necessarily, though diverse perspectives help. You can have a solo Labarty by using different “thinking hats” or changing your environment to force new perspectives.
How is this different from normal brainstorming?
Normal brainstorming often has hidden social rules and judgments. A Labarty explicitly prioritizes psychological safety and rapid, messy prototyping over polite discussion.
Can this concept work for corporate businesses?
Yes, but it requires a culture shift. Management has to genuinely accept failure as part of the process, otherwise, employees won’t feel safe enough to truly experiment.