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Comment by aj7 | Hacker News Reader

I'm really having trouble understanding why this is even relevant in 2022. Who cares what the excuses and problems were within Nokia in 2011? Is Nokia's inability to keep up with cell phone technology in 2011 and important part of technical history? Business history? If so, why? I didn't even really get the burning oil rig analogy. It was a pretty melodramatic way of describing being beaten by a competitor, which happens all the time in business history.

Then I looked around the whole website, and there was interesting data. Which ended in 2018. The whole website seems abandoned.

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<< I'm really having trouble understanding why this is even relevant in 2022.

It is not intended to be flippant, but I believe this one time the entirety of the relevance boils down to the following:

“Those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it.”

<< It was a pretty melodramatic way of describing being beaten by a competitor, which happens all the time in business history.

Yes, and I am certain MBAs review Nokia rise and fall in great detail as a result.

Many people loved Nokia and I guess still feel nostalgic about the brand. My first phone was a Nokia, and it was super reliable and, though quirky, enjoyable.

Nokia also was the most successful European high tech brand. Losing it felt disheartening at the time.

If not for Elop, I might now develop apps for Meego instead of iOS.

So, I guess, there‘s a moral to the story: don’t let bad hires run your company to the ground?

You weren't the target for that memo. It was written to motivate Nokia employees and prepare them for strategic shifts. It showed employees there was an overarching plan in place for the changes that were to come. I'm sure you can find parallels from that to a website run by a VC for current, past, and potential investees.

Wasn’t it plainly obvious to everyone at the time? Elop did everything he could to devalue Nokia in preparation for a Microsoft buyout, with the outcome that Elop would be a Microsoft executive for a little while - before Microsoft inevitably “pivots” to some new shiny thing and discontinues everything under Elop’s remit. I can’t imagine how anyone expected anything else.

Nokia was one of the larger European company. A true competitor in the global tech space. Its total collapse is very important for European tech history.

Many of us also really liked what they were doing with N900 and wanted it to continue. But it didn't.

Your failure to learn from history does not make the website irrelevant simply because it's not been updated since 2018

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