Agreed on the practicalities part.About the advancing in field part; well, it's not really sociopathic nor smoothing. A lot of the factors involving success at anything are social in nature. I'm not so sure his "advancing based on own merit" is a fun approach to life. That said, I hate networking too but not doing it is usually more unsatisfyimg in the long run.
Well, he talked about lying / being dishonest, not just getting to know people who may have work for you. I agree that it's good to show your real capabilities to a fair number of people, or even pepper them up a bit.