The trap of the top-down approach

I think the article creates a false dichotomy between top down and bottoms up approach to understanding a topic. In the end, looking at a project from multiple perspectives will give you clarity.

A quick top-down view provides scaffolding to latch onto. A follow up deep dive will poke holes in your assumptions or reinforce your current understanding.

As the article mentioned, always staying at a high level can provide a fake understanding but I think just doing a deep dive slows understanding higher level abstractions and purpose. Constantly undulating between the two or having reports who can provide the right details are the best approaches I've seen from mentors.