It's horses for courses. I like to get into the coding straight away. If what's happening is not immediately obvious to me, I'll start reading around the area

It's horses for courses. I like to get into the coding straight away. If what's happening is not immediately obvious to me, I'll start reading around the area I don't understand until I do understand it. Once I've tried a few set examples out, then I'll start putting my own code together. Inevitably, I'll hit a wall, and search around for an example that solves what I'm having a problem with. And at some point, I'll start reading the high-level, conceptual/philosophical overview. And because I've now got some experience about some of the areas within the code, how everything ties together starts to make some sense. If I had to read the high-level overview first, then I may never find the time to start coding in it!