Somebody translate this for me: what the ** is a PhD?

I've started seriously thinking about whether I should do a PhD…

Four to six years on average under enormous pressure

On top of that, you have to deal with your advisor and course expectations, and even help out with all sorts of chores for the master's students

Especially if you're not interested in becoming a professor (and there's no guarantee you'll become one anyway), you're basically spending half your life before you can even start your career, wasting your youth on research…

Any Ph.D friends here willing to share? What keeps you motivated to do research?

What did you spend all those years on a degree for? Or is there some huge upside that master's students just can't understand…?

I'm too much of a noob to understand the lofty heights you've all reached…