< Where do you get those percentages from? You know that 'sysadmin' is a big field and it differs greatly how well your communication skills need to be. If you are an it consultant, fuck yeah you need communication skills to sell your ideas. If you configure systems according to company policy, you don't need to have good communications skills because that is why you have superiors who understand you on a technical level and deal with upper management.

clearly I came up with those percentages from extensive background checks and statistical research.

As you might have guessed, it was neither of these. It was a generalization that nevertheless got across the point that communication is important. It was a rhetorical approach. One that when brought to scrutiny, kind of defeats the purpose. as I'm sure you well know.

Believe it or not, you can take whatever your opponent (speaking of which, why are we fighting?) says and with sufficient language skills, make it look as though they are saying something silly. Why are you doing this again?