Speaking as a young man, I always found this counter intuitive and here is why (and this is an argument which has been called many things including cute). Wouldn't following the heard be safe? Suppose I don't really want to change the world, rather I want to enjoy myself. Now following the heard is easy, I do whatever everyone else is doing and have the advantage that I can learn from their mistakes. Now I have a lar…
I think the misconception is that following your intuition HAS to mean NOT following the herd. That's only true in the sense of making up your mind and choosing what it is you want to do regardless of what other people are doing. If this happens to coincide with the herd's behaviour it doesn't make your behaviour herd-y (=P). The difference is the "why", not the "what". You're acting in a certain way because that's what you decided to do based on, say, intuition, or based on what other people are doing (or a mix of both). What it is you're doing may be exactly the same as what others are doing, but that's secondary. And I should say that living according to your inner voice really isn't that difficult/frustrating. In fact it's somewhat liberating to do what you want to do as figuring out the herd and convincing yourself to follow it takes more mental energy (in my opinion/experience, of course).
Lastly, when talking about "learning what works and what doesn't", it's unlikely that you'll learn about things that really work from those that follow the herd. It's more likely that you'll learn from those who lead the herd - and those people do it by following their inner voice.