[amirouche]

I always read both side of the story the thing that is as the top (database design, overall architecture) basically the abstract principle. And the bottom part the actually precise drawing that executes as a program. Actually reviewing only unknown code from in an unknown file in an unknown function is very rare. You always come from the design/architecture point of view diving into more details. The translation of the big picture into code has also its pratice just like high level language of your code.

[collyw]

"Actually reviewing only unknown code from in an unknown file in an unknown function is very rare."

I am not sure if I am understanding you correctly, but every programming job where you weren't the original author involves looking at unknown code and trying to work out what the hell it is doing.