New York Times: “Over nearly three decades as a tech entrepreneur, he has honed his penny-pinching by digging into minutiae and cutting as deeply as possible — often preferring to cut too much rather than too little.”
“Perhaps most importantly, Mr. Musk has been brutally unsentimental about the cuts, paying little regard to norms and conventions. The tech mogul has been unabashed about slashing costs to the point that corporate processes — and sometimes even product safety — break down, philosophizing that he can just fix things later, the people said. And he has been unafraid to offend, stiffing vendors to negotiate better prices and sidestepping traditional suppliers to manufacture cheaper parts from scratch.”