Hot take: I was sharpening my knives backwards for two years

I was watching a guy at a shop in Portland break down a whole ribeye last Tuesday, and he stopped mid cut to ask who taught me to sharpen. Turns out I had been dragging the blade edge first instead of trailing it, so I was basically rolling the burr over every single pass and wondering why my boning knife felt dull after one primal. He handed me his steel and had me do 10 strokes the right way, and the difference on a simple test cut through paper was embarrassing. Now I'm second guessing every knife in my roll and whether I have been screwing up my coworkers' edges too. Anyone else learn a basic skill the hard way like this, or am I the only one who missed this?