Boiling extract?

So somewhere along the way, I was talking to my buddy (who got me into homebrew). He was saying that with extracts, all the fermentable sugars are there, there really isn't much you can do to get more or less out of the extract. I'm sure there are ways to get less, but that's not the point. Somewhere on the forum here, I thought I had read that somebody had put the extract into the pot before the boil actually started. I was thinking this would be a great way to avoid scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Ultimately, my question is this....

Can this cause any kind of negative effect? Assuming that other than adding the extract early, I have followed all other directions correctly.

First off, if you're doing a partial boil, adding all the extracts at the start (before or at the boil) will lead to less hop utilization. (short answer - higher gravity wort with less volume can't absorb as much alpha acids)

That said, when I do extracts/partial boils, I add my extracts after steeping the specialty malts before the boil. I find I get to boil faster this way and avoid scorching. And, I'm not too concerned with the precise utilization when brewing this way.

I get it. So when the instructions say to use 25% less hops if doing a full boil (as opposed to partial volume boil), it's because of the gravity of the wort not absorbing the hops. So when the gravity is down, it doesn't need as much hops to obtain the correct IBUs and whatnot. 3am and I got my daily learning out of the way. Thanks, man.

On that note, I do full volume boils. And I use all the hops the kits provide. I like the hops and don't want to waste anything that I paid for. Seems dumb to throw it away.