Why Go Longer With Lumber?

When buying lumber for construction framing type work, make sure you buy the larger lumber lengths unless the pre-cut lengths fit exactly the dimensions you are designing against.  And here is why.  The shorter your lumber is, the less amount of long cuts you can apply against it.  Let's say you had to make a bunch of 7 feet cuts, but you bought 8 feet lumber.  For every 7 feet cut, you have about 1 foot worth of waste.  If you go with a longer piece of lumber such as 15 feet, then you would only wasting 1 foot waste for every 2 cuts.  Also, I find that I am able to make more small odd cuts with a longer piece of wood.