The funny thing is that I parsed the quote verbatim on the first pass and it made me think the quote was referring to westerns -- John Ford being the famous movie actor.

Took my old brain a second or two to realize that I had previously heard that quote associated with Henry Ford.

John Ford is the famous western director, not so much an actor. Though I'm sure he did some stuff. Or is there another John Ford associated with westerns?

Oops, you're right, the director.

Okay so I mistakenly wrote his first name... I don't see how that invalidates what I've said.

What's there to "invalidate"? You just made an assertion, not an argument.

You say that nobody wants to use desktops and people want computers to disappear. Unlike you, I don't believe that already, so do you have some evidence for it?

The blogpost I linked pointed out that this quote is often used not to justify a particular idea or position but instead to justify not paying attention to your audience. Paying attention doesn't mean groveling or completely giving up all of your own control.