This week: Silicon Valley shakeups

Another week of big power shifts. Steve Jobs is the biggest, of course. Hope he recovers and makes it back to Apple (AAPL) in June. As Andy Serwer, Fortune’s managing editor and my boss, says, Steve Jobs is the Thomas Edison of our times. He transformed four industries: computers, music, telecom and film. Will any innovator in our lifetimes do better than that?

Jobs also gave the best commencement speech I know of. At Stanford in 2005. You’ve probably read it or watched it on YouTube. But in case you haven’t, here it is. I talk about this commencement speech in my own talks that I give to students about managing careers and finding your calling in life. Jobs’ inspiring address happens to be one of the rare times he has talked about his illness – one of “three stories from my life,” as he calls it.

The other big news in Silicon Valley: Yahoo (YHOO) named former Autodesk (ADSK) CEO Carol Bartz as its new chief. Click here to read what I wrote on Tuesday about this tough, tell-it-like-it-is boss. My take on Sue Decker, Yahoo’s president who wanted the top job and has decided to leave, stirred up a debate with my colleague Adam Lashinsky. Adam thinks that three outside corporate boards is too many for any top-tier exec – especially for one at a company as troubled as Yahoo.

For what it’s worth, I just learned that Decker said at the last Yahoo shareholders meeting that she has a “pre-nuptial agreement” with the three companies whose boards she’s on: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), Intel (INTC) and Costco (COST). The agreement is that she won’t be required to serve on their audit committees. That’s key because audit committees typically demand at least twice as much time as other committees do. Given Decker’s finance background (she was CFO of Yahoo before she became president), I bet those boards will call on her soon to step up to the audit job. If they haven’t already.

You likely won’t see Decker land a new job soon. I hear that she’s planning to take it easy for at least a few months. To get her head together and catch up on life. Couldn’t we all use time to do that?

Enjoy your weekend!