You being a programmer can appreciate the work of Steve Wozniak, the engineering mind behind Apple computers. He has an estimated net worth of 100 million dollars, while Steve Jobs, who is said to have never written a line of code contributing to Apple, has an estimated net worth of 19 billion dollars. I haven't read the full Steemit whitepaper yet; I don't know php, or why being a witness for Steemit is something one would aspire to become, but I do know that marketers will always be the ones selling the products of engineers until the engineers learn to promote themselves. I am a digital marketer and content creator that is currently learning python. You are a software engineer that is now learning to self-promote and market yourself. I think this merging of creativity in tech in all of us is the natural progression of society, but Steemit is taking it to an entirely new level and doing it in an open democratic way. I hope you will achieve your goal of being a witness, and I hope I will achieve my goal of eventually understanding what that means.
May all your steem be fire.
Best of Luck