"two bypass/decoupling capacitors" rule?
http://www.ti.com/lit/an/scba007a/scba007a.pdf

You'll see the big capacitor referred to a "bank" or "bulk" capacitors. The smaller ones are of course also "bypass" capacitors. The basic idea is that, in the real world, the parasitics of a capacitor aren't ideal. Your "bank" capacitor will help for transient power draw (changes in real current change) but, due to real world issues, if RF noise (EMI) gets on the line, the smaller bypass capacitor will let that noise short to ground before it gets to your IC. Additionally, both of these capacitors will be helping to suppress switching transients as well as improving intercircuit isolation. 

Even though the physics is the same, the terminology is altered to their function. The "bank" capacitors "provide" a little extra charge (like a charge bank). The "bypass" ones allow the noise to bypass your IC without harming the signal. "Smoothing" capacitors reduce power supply ripple. "Decoupling" capacitors isolate two parts of a circuit.

So, in practice, you put a bank cap next to a bypass cap and there's your 10uF and 0.1uF. But two is just arbitrary. You have some RF on your board? Might need a 1nF cap, too.

A simple example of realworld impedance can be seen in this picture. An ideal cap would just be a large downward slope forever. However, smaller caps are better at higher frequencies in the real world. So, you stack TWO (or THREE, or HOWEVER MANY) next to each other to get the lowest total impedance.



I have, however, read dissenting opinions on this, saying that the self resonance between the two actually creates a HIGH impedance at certain frequencies and should be avoided, but that's for another question.