Tis the day after Christmas and I love this time of the year because unlike everyone else, I am staying home. The streets are quiet, the breeze is cool, and I am taking long walks without having to bump into people and their bikes.

Seems the whole world’s gone bike-crazy – I was in Penang last week and I think you’ve got to be crazy to be a bicyclist there because the traffic’s gotten so bad and few people pay heed to those on two wheels. Yes, even bicycling – as defined by high-tech gear and tight, tight shorts – has gone mainstream.

Penang’s become a mainstream destination as well. You can’t walk the streets of Georgetown without bumping into tourists and you now have to queue up to take photos next to the street art murals that have set social media on fire the last couple of years – like this little boy reaching for the light (right).

The other thing that went mainstream in 2013 is Asia. I was listening to the radio this morning and heard Jim Rogers, the investment banker, who said he’s moved his family and two kids to Singapore because this is where the future is. ‘I want my kids to be where the future is‘, he says and much as he says he loves New York, ‘it ain’t the same as here’.

He says the countries who’ve got the “economic models” right are all in Asia – Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong.  By this, he means, people know how to save and invest and they work hard. Nice to know we are appreciated for something.

The nations in debt, he says – they have forgotten what it is to work hard, save and invest.

What else went mainstream in 2013? Loads – China for starters. Social. Meta search. Digital. Mobile. Things once innovative become commonplace. Things once novel become ordinary. Ho ho ho to ho-hum.

And what will follow in the slipstream in 2014? South Korea. Indonesia. Taiwan. Vietnam. Philippines. All will evolve in different ways. South Korea will follow the curve of Japan as far as the adoption of online travel goes while Taiwan will be swept up along with the winds of change blowing through North Asia.

Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines – the three countries that will hold the beacon for growth in ASEAN, each with huge domestic markets to rely on and burgeoning middle class consumers with growing aspirations and greater expectations.

On the radio, I also heard an executive from Epagogix, a UK-based company that predicts which movies will do well based on scripts, plots and casting, using computer-enhanced algorithms.

So its analysts read scripts and place a value on all of the plot points, from love scenes to car chases to quirky sidekicks. Those scores are fed into the computer algorithm, which then calculates how much the movie will make at the box office, plus or minus about 10 percent. Apparently, they are “shockingly accurate” which probably explains why most of the big movies are mainstream.

However, if they had existed during the days when “Gone With The Wind” was made, that movie would never have been made or it would have been shorter or they would have recommended a happy ending and Rhett Butler would have said, “Frankly my dear, I do give a damn” instead of being so damn negative and uncaring in the end.

Yet, while it flopped at the box office on opening, it went on to become one of the most enduring movies of all time and went on to make the studio a fortune 20 years after release.

And the three stars that are mainstream box office hits in descending order – Will Smith, Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp.

The radio programme didn’t name the female stars – but then again maybe female stars aren’t mainstream yet.

All this while I am reading Malcolm Gladwell’s newest book, “David & Goliath – Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants”. This book is not so much about how the small competes against the big (in the proverbial sense) but about seeing things in a different light – advantages can be disadvantages, strengths can be weaknesses, etc – and making choices in life.

And one of those choices is whether you choose to be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond – and be aware, small ponds may not be what you think they are and they may actually be good for you. (I recommend this book for all parents by the way.)

Anyway, as Asia becomes mainstream and a bigger pond, I reckon it is vital in 2014 for those who swim in it to decide which pond they want to play in. The great thing is, whichever you choose, the pond will only get bigger and that’s good news for everyone – more fish for everyone, big or small.

Chomp, chomp.