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Yes. And you would be in /home/ubuntu/steem ... so ./programs/steemd definitely exists from that location. /programs/steemd would imply (root_dir)/programs/steemd

Therefor, yes, you meant ./programs/steemd
or cd programs then cd steemd
or cd /home/ubuntu/steem/programs/steemd (not ideal for your snippet however since people are likely installing from a more secure user directory, but that's a moot point)

But he was not starting instance to be ./something, he was entering directory with cd /programs so he did nothing wrong :)