From his MIT Media Lab bio: In Japan, he was a founder of Digital Garage and helped establish and later became CEO of the country’s first commercial Internet service provider.
Probably netted him enough to set the rest in motion. Still, landing professorships at MIT and Harvard without a college degree is pretty wild.
The Media Lab in particular is a corporate PR/money vehicle, it’s not really an academic lab like a cancer research institute. There is some real research there but also a lot of “stick 25 Arduinos in something and make a video for a Fortune 50 company who will give you $10 million”
Probably netted him enough to set the rest in motion. Still, landing professorships at MIT and Harvard without a college degree is pretty wild.