W hat I Had to Unlearn

What I Had to Unlearn

We usually talk about learning when we gain new skills or knowledge. But sometimes, we need to do the opposite — that’s called unlearning. It’s when we intentionally let go of things we’ve learned before. And then there’s relearning, when we pick something back up that we once knew but forgot.

Why do we unlearn? Maybe the skills we used before aren’t useful anymore. Or maybe our current role is so different that old habits just don’t apply.

Here are a few things I had to unlearn from my previous job:

Helping Hands: IT Support Life

Trying to fix the network on a colleague's computer

I started my career in IT support. For the first three months, I helped other teams with device and network issues — things like fixing printers, reconnecting monitors, or troubleshooting factory equipment.

I learned the basics of networking and device troubleshooting. But once I moved on to a different role, those daily support habits weren’t really needed anymore.

Data Stuff with Python and Pandas

When I joined the IT developer team, my first task was to help build a dashboard that displayed production data. I worked with a senior who used Python and Pandas for data analysis.

It was a great intro to those tools. But as I shifted more into frontend work, I found myself letting go of that data-focused mindset.

Getting into jQuery

Three months in, I asked to transfer to the IT developer team. That’s when I started doing more web development. It was my first time working seriously with JavaScript and jQuery — a big jump from IT support.

Tinkering with Arduino

Colleague and I developed sensors for factory Colleague and I developed sensors for factory Colleague and I developed sensors for factory

There was a time when I helped develop a sensor system for the factory. Honestly, I forget the exact use case — but the goal was to detect when a product passed a certain point.

We used Arduino, some tiny cameras (can’t remember the name), shell scripts, and a few libraries. Cool stuff, but not something I need in my daily work today.

Looking back, unlearning those things helped me grow and focus on what really matters now.

This article is part of the 30 Day Writing Challenge. I’ll challenge myself to write whatever comes to mind.